To Drabble and Drag
by BHKL
Summary: Written by: K - Some Normal, Some AU - "..there never really was a manual on how to go about doing the perfect first date, because every person is different in ways of what their tastes lie." - Multiple short drabbles! - Rating up'd for later chapters
1. Disclaimer Page

Disclaimer Page: To Drabble and Drag

K does not own One Piece, Mia, Kaytlyn, or Ran (pronounced as Ron)..or other obvious things of no ownership over.

K does own Arabella.

**Rated T.** Rating may go up if possible adult scenes are added.

**Main Focus:** ZoroxArabella  
**Side Focus:** LuffyxRan, SanjixKaytlyn, LawxMia

This 'story' is based off multiple themes. All just small little one shots. Hope you enjoy and please leave a review!


	2. Dead Wrong

**Title: Dead Wrong – Rating: T**

"Fuck… another dead end…" Zoro said as he faced the dirty, amateur graffiti covered wall as he looked at the piece of paper in his hand. "Shit… These directions are useless." He said but he kept the paper as he turned around, knocking a thug out when he tried to jump on him. "Not in the mood."

Zoro was going to pick up Arabella for their first date, and right now he was five minutes late of the pick-up time. "That Ran doesn't want me to date her, that's why I'm so fucking lost." He told himself, but in all honesty, he had no sense of direction even with a map in hand he can still get lost on a straight line. He just never admits it and comes up with some other excuse for his situation.

He was back out onto the street and looked at the directions that Ran had written for him when his cell came on and saw that it was Luffy's number. "Oi Luffy." He said as he heard the other laugh.

"Man Zoro, are you lost?"

"I'm not lost, Ran's instructions suck." He said as the other laughed.

"I'll tell Ran you said that. Bye!"

"Wait Lu-" He said only to sigh when he knew the other hung up and now he was sure he was going to get an earful from Ran.

He didn't know Ran that well, only seeing her a couple times, and was sure that she was into small guys like Luffy, because she was taller than him and he was a few inches taller than Luffy. "Is this gal even worth this trouble?"

He met Ran's friend, Arabella, one night at the club they were all invited to by Law, who Luffy knew one way or another because Luffy is just a magnet for attracting strange people to be friends with. They talked over a couple drinks, which was nice because he never ordered drinks for girls ever until that night, and she was just watching everyone else like a wallflower would, so he invited her to sit next to him and they talked about things and learned that she's friends with Ran. Talk about small world.

He walked her home when she didn't want to stay around much longer, and she was getting a bit buzzed, and they continued to talk in short bursts, mostly walking in comfortable silences. Once they arrived at the apartment, she thanked him and he did the same and both mentioned they hoped to see each other again some time.

Well, after a few days, Luffy mentioned about going out on dates with Ran, who came over a couple times to be formally introduced, and Sanji was also dating another friend of hers, Kaytlyn, and both girls mentioned about 'Momma-san', their nickname for Arabella and thought about maybe also seeing her again. Well one thing led to another and apparently his term 'seeing' turned into 'dating' and now the pressure was on him to pick her up and take her somewhere. He had a place in mind, but it's just finding that one apartment was the one he's having difficulty with. It didn't help that both Sanji and Nami practically ambushed him to dress 'nicely', when he was going to go out in what he thought was appropriate and comfortable. Instead they dressed him in a white silk shirt that was already showing signs of being wrinkled and his black dress pants and shoes show some of the dust that clung onto him. In short, he looked like a fancy mess. The one thing he didn't want them to touch are his earrings, so they remained on and he left before either of them did anything more, causing some sweat from running far away from them and furthering his situation of being lost.

His cell then went off and he heard Ran's voice as she mentioned that Mia was going to pick him up and take him to the apartment, no argument allowed. He told her the street he was on and waited. So far this date thing was becoming a disaster, and he didn't even mean it to be a date.

When Mia did arrive and he got in, Mia was a bit pissed at him because she was on her way to her own date with Law and he made her a few minutes late. So when they arrived at the apartment complex, he got out and she was off just like that.

He then headed up to the apartment number and knocked on the door, in which Ran opened the door, looking down at him in disappointment.

"Shit, Luffy was not kidding when he said that you get lost easy."

"I wasn't lost, your directions were hard to follow."

"And you look like shit."

"Wasn't my idea." He said as he was led in, where he saw Arabella and Luffy talking before Luffy mentioned that he was there and Arabella looked his way and greeted him in kind.

'She isn't decking out to go out.' He thought as she was wearing comfortable and casual clothes. 'Damn that witch and crap cook.'

"You look nice." She said.

"Don't lie." He said, hearing that she was too nice.

"Well, maybe a bit of a mess, but that adds some look to it." She said. "I didn't know what to wear so I just go to how I usually am."

"I was about to do the same, but then I was ambushed."

"I see." She said with a smile. "Well, now that you're here safe and sound, lead the way."

"Do you really want him to lead?" Ran mentioned.

"Shut it you." He said as both headed out with her saying that they will be back and Ran commenting that he better not do anything or let anything happen to her.

From there they headed out of the apartment complex and walked to what he thought was where that one place is as she followed quietly beside him. It remained like that for about a half an hour before he stopped and noticed that he doesn't recognize the area.

"This doesn't look right…" He said as he looked around and confirmed that yes, they were not in the right area. Like this accidental date couldn't get any worse?

"At least it's a nice night out." Arabella said, looking up at the darkening sky. "Not a cloud in the sky, it's not that cold either." She giggled. "It's a perfect night to just walk and not do anything at all."

He looked at her to see that she was enjoying herself. "Well… the place we're going isn't around here…"

"I know, but that's okay. It's no rush."

'Is this girl serious?' He thought as he lead the way again, finding themselves in a park, also not what he intended to go, but she wasn't showing signs of being annoyed or anything that would show that this date is going sour.

"Oh wow! Look!" She said as she pointed up to the sky. "There's a full moon tonight!"

'She's kinda like Luffy, only a hell lot more mature and calm.' He thought as he did look up. "Nice night for a drink." He said as she hummed.

"I never thought of it like that, but it would. But I bet it would be best to do that where you could see the ocean. Wouldn't that be something?"

"Definitely a good way to end the day full of stress and whatnot." He said as they reached back into the streets and he saw the place that he was looking for. "There's the place." He pointed to a one of those old, local diners that had been around since one's grandparents' younger golden years. Then he remembered what Nami and Sanji said about it not being a great first date choice, but he didn't like and ignored the other, much more romantic first date options out there.

"Oh wow! I didn't know this place existed!" She said as she seemed really happy to see something like this as they entered the diner, with its mix of retro and modern décor. "It almost reminds me when I go out to eat with my grandparents. I love places like this." She smelled the food and hummed in delight. "And it smells great here too!"

He smiled, knowing that he got one up from those two at his choices, and that so far this date isn't going down the shit hole like he thought it would.

Once they were seated, they looked at the menus, ordered and were in a somewhat comfortable silence when Arabella asked how he found this place, and from there they just talked random questions to know about each other and about their friends before food was served. From there they enjoyed the food and when they were done they talked a bit before the bill came up.

Sanji stressed enough that it was the man's duty to pay for the meal, in which Zoro was annoyed by that, but now, since this is the first date that he had ever have, thought that maybe there's a reason for that, but she looked at the bill and mentioned about paying for the price for their meals and pay for both the difference and tip separate. He never heard a woman do that on a date, then again he never really cared much about the whole thing to begin with. But they paid for their meals and headed back out and just wandered around the streets.

"That was a great meal. I'm so glad you took me there!" She said happily.

"You're welcome. But you didn't have to pay for your share…" He said, not that he was ungrateful, but he'd never heard of any kind of dating scenario that the girl gets to pay as well, it was always the guys doing those things for their girls.

"Well, I didn't want you to pay the whole thing, especially on the first date." She said with a bit of a blush. "To be honest this is the first time I've actually done this kind of thing. And I don't think it's fair for some guys to pay for everything. Some guys probably don't mind, but… Sorry, I'm rambling."

"It's okay, it took me off guard because that's what I've always thought when it comes to dating." He said. "Nice to know that there are some girls like you out there that also pay for some things."

"They are out there. But I don't think the media wants to show that side of dating. I don't think…"

"Can't argue with you on that." He said as they walked around the strip mall they ended up being in, simply window shopping before falling back to comfortable silence before he got a call from Ran about taking her back home already and they headed back to the apartment complex.

"I had no idea it was this late already." Arabella said as they started their way to the building, which she was leading. " 'Time flies when you're having fun', as the saying goes."

"It was pretty good."

"It was, wasn't it?" She said as they both smiled.

"To be honest, I've never dated before. I avoid it like the plague." He said.

"How come?"

"Basically the whole thing of being romantic just isn't up my alley. That's something that crap cook is good in."

"You mean Sanji?"

"Yeah."

"I can see your point." She said as she shrugged. "Well, this one isn't so bad." She scratched the back of her neck. "To be honest I thought that this will turn out bad."

"Really?" He asked, a bit confused because that's what he was thinking earlier.

"Yeah… I thought I might mess up somewhere tonight. Did I?" She asked, looking at him for his honest answer.

"No, you didn't. I thought, because I was late and we couldn't find that place sooner than I wanted to, that I was the one who screwed the date up."

"Really? You seem so confident though."

"I wasn't. Dating wasn't my thing, remember?"

"I remember. So what made you do this then?"

"Long story short, I just wanted to see you again, but somehow that was conveyed to dating and this happened."

She laughed at this as she shook her head. "Well, you got to see me."

"Yeah, I did." He said as they came upon the apartment complex. "And this wasn't bad. You definitely don't fit what I had in mind of what a girl would be like on a first date."

"Awkward? Because I was."

"No, being a bit bitchy about what a first date should be like. With all the flowers, cheesy lines and the sparkle package."

She nodded. "I can see why you would think that. But then there never really was a manual on how to go about doing the perfect first date, because every person is different in ways of what their tastes lie. Like, I really liked the diner because it reminds me of my childhood, but it's different for you because it's just a good place to go. But it works for both of us no matter what the reasons."

Zoro nodded in agreement. "I agree with you on that." He said as they reached the entrance of the complex.

"Well, thank you for the date, even though it's unintentional."

"You're welcome, and I did have a good time as well."

"That's good!" She said happily. "We should do that again sometime." She looked a bit shocked. "Only when neither of us are busy of course."

"Right. I don't mind going on a second date with you either." He said as she started to blush. "What? You didn't think I want to date you again?"

"No, no, no! I just… uh…" She was blushing horribly. "I never thought… that anyone would want to date me…" She looked away to the ground. "I mean… All I ever see are guys going after much prettier girls and I'm… me."

"What's wrong with that?" He said as he lifted her chin to look at him. "Sometimes that's all any guy can ask for. And those guys only going after pretty girls are dumbasses."

She blushed as she looked into those green eyes of his and her heart started to pound from the situation she was in. "T-Thank you… That's the nicest thing anyone outside of my friends and family ever said to me."

"I'm guessing most of these friends and family are women?"

"Well… Luffy said something like you did, but-"

"Yeah, I know how he is." He said as he brought his hand back and cleared his throat. "Well, now that we got that cleared up, let's me say this…" He looked at her with a smile on his face. "Would you like to go on a second date with me?"

She smiled and nodded. "I would be happy to."

"Okay, but you get to choose the place this time."

She giggled at that. "That's only fair. Next week or two?"

He shrugged. "Sure, why not?" He said as he took out his cell. "Hand me your cell and I'll put my number while you put yours in mine."

She nodded as they exchanged phones, put their numbers in and handed them back. "Now we're both in the circle of friends that are dating friends."

"That's not so bad sometimes. I trust Luffy's opinion on a lot of people that he meets, and Ran seems to be a trustworthy person to do the same for you. Otherwise she wouldn't let you even take a step out of the apartment."

"That's true, and I'm glad for it." She said as she blushed. "Well, I wanted to see you again too, and this is more than what I'd ask for. So, thank you for tonight."

"You're welcome. I'll see you around then."

"See you!" She said as she entered the complex while he headed back to his own apartment, which he got lost for at least an hour before arriving to find Nami and Sanji waiting in his apartment.

"Hey there." Nami said with a grin. "Enjoyed your date?"

"I did." He said as he saw the look of disgust on Sanji's face.

"The hell happened to your clothes?"

"It got like this as I was going to pick her up."

"And you went out looking like that?" Nami questioned. "Surely she didn't think you were dressed nicely."

Zoro grinned as he took his shoes off. "She's not like other girls." He said as he headed to his room. "And, by the way. You two are just dead wrong about how a first date should turn out. If there were, there would be a book about it."


	3. Excuses

**Title: Excuses – Rated T**

Since they first started dating, Arabella and Zoro seemed to be the perfect couple, but they don't see it that way. But this day the girls noticed that their mother hen wasn't her usual cheery self.

"I didn't sleep that well guys. I'm okay," She said as she washed dishes that were set out from the night before, before she got dressed and headed out to school.

Ran texted Luffy if Zoro was acting weird; his response was that the mentioned man seemed a bit angry, but said he was fine and woke up on the wrong side of the bed. She told the girls this and knew something happened between the two of them.

They were going to confront her about this, but she didn't come home the time she usually comes in, causing a few to start texting or calling her, only to either go to voicemail or not being replied. They did the same to Zoro but the same thing happened, even their boyfriends are having the same issue.

Meanwhile Arabella and Zoro were having tea at a café, staring at anything but each other, leaving them in uncomfortable silence. They turned their phones off as they sat there across from each other, the people around were just moving backgrounds, unimportant to them as they tried to gather up what they came there to do.

Zoro sighed, seeming annoyed by the silence and neither one of them talking. "This is stupid…" He said. "I can't even remember what the hell we were talking about yesterday."

She remained silent as she sighed. "All I know is that it hurt… Something about an excuse of why we were at where we were yesterday?"

"Yeah… that was it," He said as he managed to look up at her, seeing that she looks like she was going to cry but holding it back. "Sorry I yelled at you. You didn't really deserve that. I just had a bad day that day, but I didn't want to cut our date off yesterday because of that. Maybe that wasn't the best idea after all."

She looked up at him to see him and managed a small smile. "I forgive you. Do you want to talk about it? Or would you rather forget about it?"

He rolled his eyes. "If I forget it that would defeat the point of why we're here the way we are. Besides you're a good listener. I should've just told you what was bothering me instead of brushing it off."

"You also said that you didn't like the way that guy was looking at you."

"I didn't, and I think threatening his life was well deserved. And he wasn't looking at me."

She smiled as she took a sip of her tea. "Thank you for telling me. I was thinking that I've done something wrong all day until you texted me this morning about wanting to talk to me. I almost didn't want to go, but I know the others were going to corner me about why I wasn't cheerful today, but I didn't have any other place in mind to go to. So I'm glad I came."

"You couldn't make an excuse not to come?"

"Not really, I wasn't feeling creative today," She said, making him chuckle. "So I guess we're still good?"

"Yeah, we're still good. I wasn't planning on dumping you. Shit. You have any idea how hard it is to find a girl like you?"

"Like finding a needle in a haystack?"

"More like trying to find a piece of hay and a needle stack."

"Ouch. Now that image is in my head." She said as both of them laughed.

"Let's get out of here, I'm getting hungry."

"Yeah, me too."

"Know a place?"

She looked at the time and smiled. "It's still considered happy hour in one place I know."

"Lead the way then," He said as they finished their tea and headed out, only to run into Law. "Yo. Rough case?"

Law simply stared at them before sighing. "Mia has been asking me to text and call you two for the pass two fucking hours."

"Oh, we turned our phones off because we needed time to think and to talk it out," Arabella said. "Sorry about that."

"No worries," Law said as he took his cell out. "That just leaves me letting everyone know that you two are okay and still together. Everyone thought you two had a fight and broke up."

"We did have a spat, but nothing that would cause a break up," Zoro said as Arabella thanked him and made their way to a restaurant and bar to enjoy their make-up date.

Later on Arabella arrived back in the apartment and saw the girls looking at her. "Hey there!" She said happily.

"What the hell happened?" Ran said, cutting to the point.

"It was a misunderstanding, nothing serious."

"Lame excuse, what the hell happened?" Mia said, not taking crap either.

She sighed. "Zoro had a bad day yesterday, but being a man of his word he didn't want to postpone our date and I think that just made it worse. But like I said it wasn't serious and we talked it over after I got off work over tea. And he treated me for dinner as a make-up for yesterday."

"Okay. Good to know it worked out," Ran said as she turned back to the game she was playing.

"At least he manned up," Mia said as she returned to the game as well, groaning about having being bested again. "Fuck you, Ran."

Arabella simply shook her head as she excused herself to sleep. Just as she was about to go to bed, she got a text from Zoro, seeing a very romantic apology and shook her head as she texted if it was really him or did Sanji annoyed him to get him to type it, the response was that Sanji did have a majority influence on the text, but he was sorry. She replied that she forgiven him and wished him good dreams before sending it and going to sleep.


	4. Gateway

**Title: Gateway – Rated PG**

"There! That's the last of the shipments!" Arabella exclaimed as the sea winds played with the loose dark red hair strands as she adjusted her glasses to see the merchant on the dock, looking over at the barrels she had brought in before handing out a purse of her reward for delivering the right products and she looked to see that she wasn't ripped off. When all things were accounted for, she bid the merchant well and went back to the sub to see the other three women there.

"Are they satisfied with the shipments?" Mia asked as she looked up from a book she was looking at, her blue eyes showed boredom.

"They did, and the reward is all accounted for," She said as she held up the purse.

"That's good, give it to Kaytlyn. I'm going to dock this sub to another marina and get it looked over. That one current really did a number on one of the propellers. I'm surprised we even made it out of that place alive."

"That was scary," She agreed as she walked towards another room in the cramped space of the submarine and saw the long, black haired girl she was looking for. "Hey there Lyn!"

"Hey there Arie!" Kaytlyn said as she caught the coin purse that was thrown her way. "Alright! Pay day!"

"We were pretty darn lucky to be alive to see it. I'll never get used to the Red Line."

"I know what you mean, but this is our job."

"I know," She said as she asked. "Hey, have you seen Ran around?"

"Last I heard she's back in the room, taking a nap."

"That sea current did knock us awake…" She muttered as she went through several passage ways to find a door and carefully opened it to see Ran, asleep on the cot that looked uncomfortable but they made the best of it, and left her be. That was when her pocket started to vibrate and she dug out her mini den den mushi. "Hello, Ara speaking."

"Hey Ara, while I'm getting Willie looked over, why don't you and the other girls walk around town for a bit, maybe we can get some new customers."

"It has been a while since we simply just walked around on land for some time," She said as she agreed to the idea and waited until they landed port.

When the submarine, Willie, was out of the water, Mia followed the shipwright to make sure everything is in order and the three remaining girls headed out to town, each agreeing on a place and time to meet up to go back to the sub. Arabella saw another sub, one coated in yellow, but didn't stick around to see what the sub was call or who runs it because it had been a week since the last time she had more leg room to move, and she wasn't going to waste it on some curiosity over another sub.

She wandered around the taverns and recognized the merchant she was talking to not long ago and he was talking to a client, who then recommended her to another person who might need their service before offering a drink on the house, which she kindly refused, wanting to tour the city sober. That's when she was offered a little delivery job by the pub owner and followed the directions to the outskirts of the small town and into a small forest where she would find the town's shrine.

The shrine rested on a large hill and the only way to get there is to climb up the steps, which she took. And about some time later, she reached the topmost step and leaned up against the red painted wood gateway as she took a moment to rest from the climb. When she did, she looked to see a very old styled, but well kept up shrine as she noticed that she wasn't the only one that's here.

In front of the shrine was a man a bit taller than her by five to six inches, wearing a dark green jacket, black pants that were tucked into black boots. He had light green hair and she noticed that he had three katanas on his right side.

'Three katanas? Where have I heard that before?' She thought as she walked beside him and placed down the pub owner's offering and prayed on the owner's behalf. Once she was done with that, she noticed that the man that was there before her is now gone and turned back to see that he was making his way towards the gateway before he stopped just as he was reaching the first step to go down.

"Oi."

She jumped at the deep sounding voice of the man.

"Don't just stand there and gawk if you're done here."

'How did he know?' She thought as she started to move and soon they were walking side by side down the stairs. She looked up to see his face and then recognized him as Roronoa Zoro, the first mate of the famous rookie pirate crew, the Strawhats. Then she felt a loose piece of the step and was about to fall if not for the other catching her.

"Oi, pay attention when you're walking down. These steps are old."

"T-Thanks, Zoro."

"We met before?"

"N-No. I just recognize you from your wanted poster. Though I think they should up date it." She said as she saw that the man had a vertical scar on over his left eye and the hair was combed back.

He shrugged. "They'll get around to it." He then looked at her. "You're not going to tell that my crew is here, are you?"

"Why should I do that? Neither you nor the Strawhats have done anything to be told on. If anything you're like me, just stretching the legs out after being off dry land for some time."

"You travel?"

"I'm actually in this new delivery business with a few friends of mine. We just dropped off some ale supply to a merchant in this town."

"Aren't you afraid of getting attacked by other ships?"

She giggled. "No, no. We don't use a ship. We use a sub."

"A sub?"

"Yeah, not a great way to travel, but we avoid the unnecessary confrontations to pirates, marines, and other ships that want to take our deliveries for their own."

"At least you don't have to worry about unexpected storms."

"Oh we get those to. We had to go over the Red Line and hurdle our way with the currents. And don't get me started on the sea kings."

He laughed as they reached to the last step of the stairs where they continued on through the forest and back into town, where there was a loud ruckus going on. "Shit…" He sighed.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing, it's something that most of the crew is used to." He said as a childish laugh was heard as the captain himself came running , noticing his first mate.

"Oi! Zoro! There you are!" He said as there was another person running along with him.

"Ran?" She said as she saw her much taller friend, enjoying herself just as much as the young captain.

"Oh hey Momma-san!"

" 'Momma-san'?"

"I'm more or less the mother hen in my crew."

"I know how that is." He said as they both made a run for it along with the two. "What the hell did you do this time, Luffy!?"

"I didn't do anything! Ran did!"

"Did not! You're the one who ate everything!"

"Oh! There's Sunny!" Luffy said as he stretched his arm out to the mast as he grabbed onto Zoro. "Nice meeting you Ran! Hope I see you again!" He said as he practically disappeared, carrying a yelling first mate as they rammed into the mass.

"Fuck that's gotta hurt." Ran said as she grabbed Arabella's arm and they ran. "Come on! We have to see if Willie is fixed or not! And have you seen Lyn?"

"No I haven't!" She replied as she looked back to see most of the angry towns people going up to the dock where the ship was as it blasted away.

"Damnit! Why don't we have that for our sub?" Ran said as she quickly added. "Don't answer that." They then made their way towards where the sub is when she asked the red head about Zoro. "I mean, you were with him when Luffy and I ran for our lives."

Arabella explained about her day's events up to that point as they reached to where Willie was just being put back into the water.

"Hey Mia, Kaytlyn…" Ran said as she noticed that the two girls seemed a bit down. "The hell happened to you two?"

The two girls looked at them and sighed.

"I'm in love." Kaytlyn said as she held up a rose, obviously was given to her sometime in the day.

Mia stayed silent, but she was playing with something in her fingers that looked like a scalpel.

"Okay…" Ran said as they waited until they could board back onto the Willie and headed back out to the sea.

A couple days later, they were in another town to pick up their new delivery shipments when they encountered both the Strawhats and the Heart Pirates just right next to them on the port,

"Oi! Ran! And that girl that was with Zoro last time!"

"Huh? The Marimo was with a girl?"

"Sanji?"

"Kaytlyn-chwan!"

"Law?"

"Yo. Didn't expect to see you so soon."

"Same."

"Yohohoho! What pretty ladies! May I see your panties?" Brook called out, earning two shoes and Sanji's kick to the head.

"Give me back my shoe!" Both Ran and Mia called out while Kaytlyn and Arabella sighed.

"What's all the excitement about?" Zoro called out as he yawned.

"It's the girls from the last town! They're here too!"

Zoro looked and his working green eye landed on Arabella's hazel ones. "Hello."

"Hello again." She said as they laughed.


	5. Rival

**Title: Rivalry – Rated PG**

"What the hell did you say, Marimo?"

"You heard me, Crap Cook!"

This is what Arabella and Kaytlyn heard when they walked into the field park and saw their boyfriends arguing…again.

To anyone who knew the two males, they have an ongoing rivalry that had started who knows when and continue to this very day.

"Looks like they're at it again," Kaytlyn said as Arabella nodded.

"I wonder what it is this time," Arabella asked as they watched the two duke it out, messing up their clothes that they were wearing for their dates. "It a good thing we're going to a movie, no one really cares what you wear when their attention is on the movie."

"Sanji might disagree with you on that," Kaytlyn said as they waited for them to stop their childish fight, which usually last a couple minutes, they have records of it to prove it.

When they saw that the two men were done they went up to them, making the two look at them.

"Ah! Kaytlyn!" Sanji said as he looked at himself, disheartened by the sight he was now.

"Hey Ara. When did you guys get here?"

"Just about when you two started to fight," Arabella said. "What was it about this time?" She crossed her arms and going into mother hen mode.

The two males looked at different directions other than each other or their girlfriends.

"Sanji-kun…" Kaytlyn said as he looked her way. "What happened?" She asked with a raised brow. "Or you can't hold my hand when we're in the theatre."

Sanji seemed to break at that. "We were fighting over which one of you is the better girlfriend."

The girls stared at him before looking at Zoro, who was looking at the tree farthest from them with some kind of bored interest.

"I don't even want to know how that went about," Arabella said as she went up to Zoro. "Come on tough guy, you promised me a movie night."

Zoro sighed as he dusted his shoulder. "Alright," He said as he looked himself over, making her shake her head.

"I don't care that you're covered in grass stains. Give's more personality to your clothes."

Zoro grinned as he looked cockily at Sanji. "And that's why Ara is the better girlfriend."

"Come off it!" Arabella said as she dragged Zoro out of the park while Kaytlyn calmed Sanji down. "I still won't ask."

"I know," He said as they made it out of the park, hand in hand.

"And Zoro…"

"Hm?"

"Thank you for the compliment. But don't argue about that again. At least when we're not going on a date with our friends."

"Don't hold your breath," He said as she giggled, knowing that those two men will argue and fight over even the smallest thing.

They can be friends, but for the majority of their existence, they are rivals.


	6. Light

**Title: Light – Rating: PG**

Zoro woke up first after the night of love making to be greeted by the light of the sunlight from his window. He looked down at his girlfriend and lover, who was still asleep, finding that the light on her and the white bed sheets make her a picture of innocence, except for the fact that he took her virginity the night before and took note that he would have to clean his sheets from the small amount of blood that's there somewhere within the tangled mess. He has no regrets as he carefully got up, grabbed his slacks that he left in the corner of the room and started to make breakfast, which was a failure

When he managed to burn bacon and ruin the eggs, he just mentally cursed and did toast, hot chocolate and added some coffee in each of the mugs, which brought back a memory of when she made the same thing for him. He brought them over to see that she was up, if not a bit uncomfortable.

'Damn, I knew I was too rough.' He thought as he bid her good morning and handed her the mug and then the toast. He asked if she was in pain, confirming that she did feel some pain before she mentioned about him attempting to make breakfast. He wasn't a bad cook, but it wasn't according to plan for him, but it wasn't all bad as they enjoyed their few minutes of what some would say 'honeymoon bliss' before the door knocked.

He slightly regretted opening the door to see the other three girls there. He should've known they would seek him out, but what could he do? But he didn't regret shutting the door in their faces when they saw that yes, she's alive and well, and that she confirmed that he did use protection, thus they can leave them in peace. He saw that she was slightly struggling standing up. 'Shit I was really rough.' He thought as he picked her up and placed her on the couch.

"Need anything?" He asked.

"A kiss?" She said with a smile and he couldn't really refuse as he did that.

When they parted, he can see the light on her seemed to make her glow. "You're beautiful."

She blushed, which he did rather enjoy seeing as she smiled. "And you're handsome." She said as she placed her hand on his face.

It was a cliché moment, but sometimes clichés have their place, especially for the light of the morning and days after.

* * *

**Authors Notes:** This drabble is a side to "Take the Next Step"


	7. My Inspiration

**Title: My Inspiration – Rating: PG**

Arabella looked at the piece of paper in her hand that was recently printed out from their main computer and looked at the ingredients as she walked down the grocery store. It was her turn to get groceries and she was going to pick up some extra items to make something.

"I'm going to need a lot of rice, so maybe an extra bag?" She said as she piled on the four bags of rice when she normally gets three. "And now for some seaweed strips…" She looked to find a bag of thin, black-green seaweed and added that to her cart. "I got a lot of salt at home, and I can use the large pot because the cooker might not do…" She then got the other things on the list and checked out the items to bring back to the apartment to put away.

From there she donned her favorite green apron with the cute tiger on it and brought out the large pot, filled it with water, put in the rice and let it cook with a lid on it. As she waited she checked her cell for any missed calls, finding none, and set to work on getting the other things up for when the rice is done.

After a half an hour's wait, the rice was done and she let the rice cool a little before scooping out a portion of rice and started to mold it into a ball. After looking at the instructions to make sure she did okay, she placed the seaweed strip on it and placed it in a bamboo box that was bought in a sale from one of the tenets that was moving out, and it was finally being put to some use. She then made one that was a bit like a rounded point triangle, and continued this until the box was full and was out of the seaweed to do any more. She made one for herself to taste it herself and nodded with approval before putting the bamboo lid back onto the box, storing the rice balls, and quickly fixed up some vegetables, meat, and took out some soy sauce for the other girls to come in and eat the rest of the rice as she headed out to the gym, box in hand and waited for Zoro to come out.

"Oi, Ara," He said as she looked up to see him. "What brings you here?"

She smiled as she held out the bamboo box to him. "I made something for you."

He took the box and opened the lid to see the rice balls. "Onigiri?"

"Yeah, I overheard you and Mia talking about it and I just kinda got inspired to try something."

"Thank you," He said as he took a bit of one. "A little weak on the salt, but it's not bad for it being your first time."

"Thank you," She said as she was offered one, which she took and both enjoyed the rice balls that she made.


	8. Rebirth

**Title: Rebirth – Rating: T**

Arabella walked along the concrete path in the park, watching the activities going on from amateur athletes working out to mothers watching over their young while chatting up with other mothers or nannies in the playground area. She likes her days off when the weather was good like today and she felt like doing something simple, like walking. It was rare for her to have a day when she doesn't have to go to school and having the day off because someone wanted the money more than she did for the day so they too can have the day off, it was refreshing to say the least.

Today, though, she felt drawn towards something.

The idea of going to the park had been her idea, and once she got there she simply let her feet do what they want while her mind wandered, realizing now and then that she was somewhere where she wasn't minutes ago, but shrugged it off and continued. Sometime later she stopped and looked over at a tree and went over there and found a young man with light green hair and very well toned physically. She couldn't help but feel that she knew him even though this is the first time meeting him.

_~Hundreds of Years Ago~_

Arabella was walking through a forest, looking for game to bring back for her and the crew to eat since they were flat broke. She wasn't much of a hunter, but she did set some traps and caught rabbits and wild fowl, but currently she's having difficulty getting anything.

"At this rate we might be eating bugs," She said as she heard a snore and looked over at a tree, hearing the snore again. She went up to it and found and recognized as the famous ex-pirate hunter, Roronoa Zoro. 'He's asleep? Out here in the middle of nowhere?' She thought as she looked around. 'Guess there's nothing to do if you're out here a while.' She thought as she heard something rustle in the bushes ahead and waited patiently for it to come out or not when a squirrel came out. 'Not really enough meat to satisfy everyone… But I guess it would make a good salad topping or something.' She was going to kill it when, within a blink of an eye, the squirrel was on the ground, dead.

"You going to get that?"

She looked to see the man was awake. "Y-Yes…"

"It's yours then. I'm looking for much bigger game than that."

"You're looking for food as well?"

"Yeah."

She took out her bag to put in the dead squirrel in. "Thank you for this."

He shrugged as he walked in a certain direction, leaving her to go onto the other.

_~Present Day~_

Arabella wondered why the man was sleeping out here, but then it was a nice day out to do just that.

"Oi," He said as it made her jump. "What the hell are you looking at?" He turned his head up to face her, looking annoyed as if she disrupted his sleep.

"I'm sorry, I just noticed someone was here. I didn't mean to bother you in anyway," She said as he lifted a brow and shrugged.

"Staring at a sleeping man could get you killed."

"So would sleeping out in the open like you are now," She said, earning a chuckle.

"I suppose so," He said as he got up. "I've been sleeping too long anyway…" He stretched with a yawn. "So, what brings you out here?"

"Enjoying the day like you," She said as she tilted her head. "Have we met before? It feels like I know you…"

"That's strange but no. I would've remembered."

"Yeah… Sorry for being weird. I'll leave you be," She said as she was about to walk away when he mentioned her to wait. "Yes?"

"My name's Zoro. Roronoa Zoro."

"I'm Arabella. Arabella Willins…" She said as she started to feel her heart pound a little harder.

"Arabella huh? Unusual name."

"It's a pretty old time name, but I love it. It is my name after all."

He grinned as he nodded. "Yeah, it really isn't a bad name. If lucky enough we might meet again." He said as he walked away.

She smiled and nodded as she continued on her way.

_~Hundreds of Years Ago: One week later~_

She was walking around town after three days of being in Willie, the submarine, and her three crewmates. Her captain, Ran, playfully ordered them to just relax for the day and come back before nightfall. So she was spending her day walking around the shops, looking for anything that reaches out to her, and she did from a wanted poster of Roronoa Zoro with his latest rise in bounty.

"Oi, you're that girl."

She jumped as she looked to see the actual man in the flesh. "H-Hello again."

He nodded as he raised a brow. "I didn't expect to see you again."

"Same, but the world is a strange place regardless."

"I guess…" He said as he raised his brow. "So what are you doing out here? Hunting dogs and cats now?"

"No! Nothing like that!" She exclaimed before calmly continuing, "I'm just strolling today."

"Ah, staying here long?"

"We're leaving in the morning."

"Same here," He said as he looked around the area. "Going anywhere specific?"

"No, not really? Is there a place you're going to?"

"I heard there was a good smith around here, but the people here aren't giving me the right directions to find it."

"Okay, I can help with that. I'm not great with directions myself, but I'm sure we'll find it before daylight runs out," She said as they both wandered around town and found the smiths shop in a half an hour. And when Zoro handed his katanas to the man to look over and told to come back within a certain time, they headed back out again and looked around the shops.

Sometime while they were looking around, Zoro seemed to panic and dragged her into the alley with her. "Stay quiet for a moment," He whispered as a group of five marines ran pass the alley they were in and waited a moment before he sighed. "Sorry about that," He said as he looked at her, who was blushing like crazy and they were very close. "Oi? You okay? You're face is starting to look like the same color as cotton candy."

"I'm fine. It was just sudden for me."

"Ah, sorry," He said as he leaned back and let her have some room.

'Stupid heart! Calm down!' She thought as they made their way out of the alley, making sure there are no marines around.

"Luffy must've done something stupid to get them running like that, again."

"You're not going to help him?"

"Luffy? He can handle himself."

"I see…" She said as they continued to wander around.

_~Present Day~_

Arabella was walking along with her friends and roommates when they decided to split up to find things for the party they were invited to. She was just looking around when she was looking at something and not paying attention as she ran into a body. "Oh! I'm so sorry!" She said only to see that it was Zoro. "Zoro?"

He looked up at her as he stared at her for a moment before pointing to her. "Ara… bella?"

"That's right," She said as he heart started to pound.

"Huh, so we meet again? If we ran into each other like this again it will be fate."

"Fate? Can something that simple really do that?"

He shrugged. "Maybe. Always thought that everything has a reason."

"Can't argue with that. Life is full of mysteries that could never be explained."

"That is true," He said as he looked around. "You here alone?"

"No, I'm with a few friends, we just split up to cover more ground. We're looking for stuff for this party we've been invited to in our apartment complex. So far no luck, but then I'm not much of a party person."

"You don't look like it. But since we're here, maybe you can help me find this antique weapon store that's around here."

"Antique weapons? Sure I think I passed by it not too long ago," She said as she led the way to said store and they went up to the owner.

"What can I do for you?"

"I'm Roronoa. I called you about three katanas you said you have here?"

"Ah yes, I remember. Just one minute." He said as he went to the back room and back out within a couple minutes, holding a long, cloth covered item before setting it down and revealed it to be three katanas that looked as though they have really been used in the past and well maintained. "You're one lucky bastard, ya know. These three were a bitch to find you know."

"I know," He said as he studied the swords.

She watched patiently as she saw the intense concentration of the katanas as he pulled out a bit of the blade to see his reflection in them before closing back in respectfully. 'This guy really likes those katanas. I wonder if he's one of those who enjoys kendo?'

"Looks like they don't mind me," Zoro said suddenly as the man nodded. "Thank you for finding them."

"Whatever, don't go asking for anything else difficult for me to find," He said as Zoro nodded, took the katanas to place them on his right hip and started to head out with the girl following him.

"Did you already pay for them?"

"Yeah, practically put me in debt for the next two years," He said as they walked side by side for a moment. "Do you have to leave anytime soon?"

She checked her watch and confirmed that the time she was to meet up with them was an hour and a half away.

"Wanna hang out then? I'm not really in the mood to go back to my apartment."

"Okay," She said as they did just that until some punk kid didn't see where he was going and bumped her to bump into the other.

"Hey watch it bi-" The kid was going to say when he saw the imitating glare from Zoro, making him run along with his buddies.

"You okay?"

"Yeah… I'm fine," She said as her face was starting to redden from that.

"You sure? You're face is starting to resemble the same color as cotton candy."

"It was just sudden is all," She said, nervously laughing it off.

"I suppose…" He said as they continued to wander around until the time was nearing for her to go back with her friends.

_~Hundreds of Years Ago~_

They wandered around until it was time to go back to the smiths and pick up the looked over katanas that looked as though at least one could take out a marine fleet on its own.

"Thank you, I can tell they were looked over with the upmost care," Zoro said, obviously pleased with the man's work.

"If I didn't I would get a sack ton load of bitching. And those were not easy for me to look over, especially that white one, lot of history on that one alone."

"Yes. Thank you again," He said as they headed out and wandered to the ports. "It was relatively peaceful today. I half expected Luffy to cause something like earlier."

"I'm guessing he does that quite often when you guys hit land," She said as the other chuckled. 'He has a nice smile.' She thought.

"Yeah, but then it beats us getting too comfortable. But days like this is nice as well, enough time to breathe at least." He said as he looked at her. "Although I didn't expect to have company to accompany me around, and you're rather quiet."

"Well… I'm not really talkative unless otherwise."

"Same with me as well," He said. "Although I usually don't have just anyone accompany me that is not from the crew or someone I know personally outside of it."

"Maybe because I'm a woman?" She asked as he laughed.

"That's a good one! I know women that can easily kick my ass just by pissing them off! So no, I know how you women are when pushed far enough."

"So… what then?"

"Why are you asking me?"

"When you were looking at your katanas, you studied them as if they were truly living. You don't see that every day. And if one were able to do that, surely one can study people with the same eye but different lens."

He looked at her for a moment and grinned. "You're an unusual one. In a good way though. Trust me; I've seen a lot of strange things."

"I believe you on that," She said as they reached the marina. "Well… this is where we part again."

"So it is," He said as he rested his right hand on his swords. "Well, if we ever do meet again, its fate that we will be close."

"Close?"

He shrugged. "However you see it I guess."

She hummed a bit before nodding. "Can't argue when fate is concerned. If it's to be then let it be. Who knows what's in store for everyone in the world?"

"That's true," He said as he turned to head to the ship. "Until then, stay well."

"To you as well," She said as she went the other path towards the sub.

_~Present~_

"I better meet up with the girls; otherwise they'll start to worry."

"You get in sticky situations often?"

"No, I'm pretty much like the mother hen. It's a persona that I couldn't get rid of even if I tried."

"That could explain a few things."

"Hey…"

"I don't mind it! In fact there are some days I feel like a parent myself."

"Really? That's good to know that I'm not the only one who feels that way," She said with a giggle. "I guess this were we part again. I enjoyed my stroll with you."

"It was nice. You're not what a normal girl would act."

"How can one define normal?"

"Got me there," He said with a laugh. "Well, if fate allows it, we'll meet again."

She smiled and nodded. "I hope so as well." And with that they parted their ways once more.

A month went by and Arabella and the girls were having a movie night. They went to the theatres and purchased their tickets.

"Oh Ran!"

All the girls looked over and Ran was nearly knocked over by a male a bit smaller than her.

"Luffy! Son of a bitch! Don't knock me over out of the blue like that!" She yelled at him, which he just laughed off.

"Sorry, sorry." He said, but he didn't seem sorry as he looked up at the other girls. "Oh, you must be her friends she told me so much about! I'm Luffy!"

"Nice to meet you," Arabella said. "But you really shouldn't do that to people," She wagged her finger at him. "At least not without so much as a warning! You could've hurt Ran like that! And you don't want to hurt someone you care for, right?"

"No…" Luffy said as he looked like a kicked puppy as his head was rubbed.

"Just remember the next time you try something like that, okay?"

"Okay!" He said as he chuckled. "You must be Mamma-san! Nice to meet you!"

"It's actually-"

"Arabella?"

She turned to see Zoro and was surprised to see him.

"Shit on me…" He said as he laughed. "It really is you!"

She laughed as well. "It's good to see you to!"

"Nah? Oi Zoro! You know her?"

"Yeah, you could say that."

_~Hundreds of Years Ago: Years Later~_

She worked in a tavern for a few years now and it was never really boring to her as she got to listen to many different tales from travelers of all walks of life. In that time frame she was asked to be married by a few, most of them drunk, but she politely turned them down and continued what she was doing. She had followed on any news about the Strawhat pirates, wondering what crazy ventures they've been in recently. And when she would see a wanted poster of Zoro up one the messenger boards, she would smile and continue on her way.

One pounding rainy evening, she was about to close when she heard the door open and she looked up from cleaning one of the tables. "I'm sorry sir, we're closed to-" She stopped when she got a good look at the man who entered the closing pub, drenching wet. "Zoro?"

He looked at her as a look of realization hit him. "You're that girl… Arabella!" He said as he chuckled. "Shit… Seems like fate has it in us to meet each other."

"A few years later since last time we saw, but that's fine," She said as she mentioned him to sit down at the bar. "I'll pour you a drink. On the house."

"You don't have to do that. I'll pay for my fair share," He said as he did sit down. "The strongest you have."

"You got it," She said as she poured him a drink. "Since you're here, you have to tell me what has been going on, and don't leave one detail out."

"Seriously?" He asked, a bit amused.

"The total tab will be cut in half if you would tell me."

"Deal," He said as he told her about what he and the Strawhat crew have done.

_~Present~_

Soon everyone was in the theatre, and in a cruel twist of fate that seemed to lend its power to Ran, Arabella and Zoro were sitting next to each other, while the others were seats away from them.

'Darn you Ran… What have I done to deserve this?' She thought as she had to sit through the latest horror movie, which did have a few scare moments that she would have nightmares for a few nights.

In the next part of the movie, she had to close her eyes for when she sensed the other leaning and whispered if she was okay, which she nodded, braving looking up to see a gore fest going on that made her disgusted more than scared.

"Come on, let's get out of here." Zoro said in her ear, making her shiver as she agreed and went with him out of the theatre and out to the lobby area. "Want to sneak in a different movie? I didn't really care for that movie much."

"Wouldn't we get in trouble?"

"We paid for our tickets, right? Why would they stop us? The movie we were in was lame, and we have to get into a better one to make up for it. Don't you agree?"

"I guess that makes sense…" She said as she was grabbed by the wrist.

"Then let's go," He said as he entered a random theatre door, which was showing a children's movie and quickly went back out, which she had to hold in her giggle of the little mishap.

_~Hundreds of Years Ago~_

She laughed, gasped, and remained silent when she heard Zoro's tale of what had happened over the years, and soon it had been three hours since he walked into the bar. And when he was done, they stayed in a comfortable silence for a moment before he chuckled.

"To think that after everything, I still remember that day in the town."

"I remember that too… I'm guessing you're not staying long."

"Nope, heading out first thing in the morning."

"Seems like fate will continue to let us meet now and then due to our professions."

"Guess so…" He said as he smiled. "Well, at least each of us has good company."

"That we do," She said as she poured him another glass. "But sometimes I wonder what life would be like if we were in different positions? Would we even meet at all?"

He shrugged. "Who knows? But I won't argue about the different life thing."

"Being reborn you mean?" She asked. "It's a nice thought, but then we wouldn't know each other even if we would meet? Would we?"

"Not my place to say," He said as he finished up the drink. "But if fate makes us bump into each other, maybe it would in the next life? Who knows?" He mused as he paid for his drinks. "I better head back to the ship."

"Okay… I hope I can see you again."

"That's fate's choice to decide," He said as he headed out of the door.

"Stay well then."

_~Present~_

When the movie they snuck into ended, they went out towards the lobby when Zoro stopped walking for a moment, making her look back and questioned if he was okay or not.

"Remember when we first met? You said that you felt that we might've met before? But that it was impossible?"

"Yes."

"I'm getting that feeling as well…" He shrugged. "Maybe we knew each other in another life?"

"As in a rebirth kind of thing? It sounds a bit farfetched."

"Life is mysterious, in all forms it seems."

"Can't argue with that," She said.

"Looks like we'll be seeing more of each other now, considering that Luffy is hanging around… Ran?"

She nodded. "It looks to be so," She said as both saw the group, the girls having looks of suggestion that she had to face-palm for; she had hung out with these girls too much to know.


	9. Exploration

**Title: Exploration – Rating: T**

It was the Edo period and Arabella was a traveler from a different sea and was tipped that the town that she was going to lives a well known and very good doctor and she needed to get medicine for the town she got the job from. On her way there, she came across a sleeping monk. However this particular monk has three katana beside him. She couldn't see his face, due to the large cone hat, but she could tell by the way the body looks that he wasn't an old monk, then she heard his stomach growl, but he didn't wake up.

'Probably one of those traveling monks that can also fight.' She thought as she dug into her bag and took out a clothed box to set it down next to him. 'At least he won't be hungry.' She then made her way down the road into town.

When she did arrive to town, she went up to the first person to ask where the doctor was located, only to find out that he was out until tomorrow. She had traveled for three days to get to this town, so she looked for a place to at least settle down, when she was starting to get hungry herself. "That box I gave to that monk is the last one of three that I had with food… Oh well, I must've gained some good karma points for that." She said as she wandered around town before finding a small hill with a stream that it slopes down to and sat down. "Man I walked a lot these pass three days… My legs are so sore…" She massaged said legs as she took off her shoes and placed them in the cooling water, sighing in relief. "Soo good…"

She looked around the area and looked to see the daily life of the people and smiling at the simplicity of people watching. She saw children playing together, adults gossiping, couples either giggling or arguing, the elderly doing the same thing she's doing while side talking about how crazy the young ones are these days. When she couldn't feel her feet she took them out of the water and put on some sandals to continue walking around the town, looking for a cheap place to spend the night. She didn't find any luck as she realized that the money she had with her wasn't even enough for the cheapest place around. "Looks like I'll be sleeping outside of town and come back in the morning," She said when she saw the monk again going into what looks like a restaurant.

"Oh Zoro! Nice to see you again!" Called out a young male's voice.

'Looks like he's known in this town.' She thought as she went up to listen in on the conversations within the restaurant.

"Oi, Marimo, where did you get that bento box?"

"Someone left it when I woke up from a nap," Said a deep voice that made her shiver.

'Not a bad sounding voice.'

"Did you take a nap in an odd place again?" Asked a different young man's voice. "I bet that person thought you would need it and left it there for you to have."

"I did need it. The only reason I'm even here is to catch up on what's going on around here. Other than that I'm not paying."

"Then get the hell out!" Screeched a young woman's voice. "I'm tired of you idiots coming in and not paying! This is a business after all!"

"I will, but I want to know if there were any news about a new face here earlier. I wanted to return this bento box to them if I could."

"Huh? Return it?"

"Why not? I have to thank this person if they even come through this town."

"The road to the next one is a mile after getting out of this town," The woman said. "If they came here around the time you said you found that bento, then there's a possibility that they're still here. After you go a mile and take the road it takes a good half a day to get to the next town. And it's already starting to set."

"Na… I think I heard someone say that they saw a girl that's not from here. Maybe that's the person you're looking for?"

'Might as well go in…' She thought. 'It's silly to be out here and listen to all this.' She then pushed up the curtains to enter the restaurant, seeing eyes on her. 'Okay maybe that was too soon.'

"Mellorine!" Said the young man with blond hair with a lock of it covering the left eye. "Welcome to our restaurant, please sit down and I'll make something for you."

"Don't you mean until after I order?"

"Nonsense! I know exactly what you need!" He exclaimed as he disappeared to what she assumes is the kitchen.

She sat down, putting her bag down and sighed. 'Yep… this was a bad idea.'

"Oi."

She slightly jumped as she faced the deep sounding male voice to see a face more suited for a warrior than a monk.

"Did you just get in town?" He asked.

"Yes. A couple of hours ago in fact. I was looking for the doctor in this town… Doctor Chopper I do believe, but he's not in town until tomorrow."

"Why do you need to see Choppa?" Asked the young man with a straw hat.

"I was asked to pick up some medicine from the town before this one and their doctor isn't really trained in the illness this person has, but they couldn't leave them alone so they saw me, asked if I was going anywhere and here I am."

"Oh, I see," The young man said as he picked his nose. "So what else do you do?"

"I'm currently traveling, doing odd jobs here and there. After that, I hope I get enough of my exploring around this country to do something worthwhile."

"Wow! You travel? What have you seen?" He asked, looking like an excited child.

"Oi, oi! Don't bother the lady!" exclaimed the blond as he placed the food, a bowl of something that looks like soup but smells divine. "For you, a weary yet beautiful traveler."

"Thank you. How much do I owe you?" She asked before she could even dig into the delightful soup.

"You don't-"

"Fifty belis," The young woman with ginger hair said, sending a glare towards the blond.

"Okay," She said as she took out the amount and started to drink the soup. 'Oh man this is good..' She thought as she sighed. "Maybe the best soup I've ever had in my life."

"I'm so pleased to hear that," The blond said, seeming to float in air from the praise.

"And thank you so much for paying!" Said the young woman as she seemed pleased as well.

"Er… You're both welcome?" She said as she looked over to see that the green eyes of the monk were looking at her. 'Was he staring at me this whole time?' She thought as she blushed. 'He has really nice eyes.'

He broke the contact as he held up the bento box and the cloth that was with it. "This wouldn't happen to be yours, would it?"

She nodded. "Yes, but it was given to me by the woman who knew the sickly, and I didn't ask for money as a reward, so she gave me at least three bentos to eat when I feel like it. I still have the two in my bag, and she even said that I don't have to have all three of them, because they can make more."

He went back to look at her. "… Thank you." He said as he got up, handed the box to her and headed out.

"You're welcome," She said as he left the restaurant.

"Shitty Marimo…" The blond groaned as he looked at her. "Do you have a place to stay?"

"I don't actually…" She admitted.

"You can stay with us!" exclaimed the young man with the straw hat. "I'm Luffy!"

"I'm Arabella, and thank you," She said.

"Arabella… what a beautiful name."

"Thanks," Arabella said as she organized the empty soup bowl in a neat pile.

"You didn't have to do that."

"Sorry, kinda a habit of mine."

"How cute," He said as he seemed to have a heart where the eye should be.

'He's a bit of a flirt isn't he?' She pondered. 'He's pretty good looking… but there's so much that flirting can go until it's more annoying than sweet.'

"Sorry about the Marimo earlier."

"The monk?"

"Yeah, he's like that with everyone."

"No he's not, he likes her."

"How would you know, Luffy?"

Luffy laughed his unique laugh. "Because if he didn't, he wouldn't bother trying to return the bento box. And he was looking at her while she was eating."

"That's creepy, even for that guy," The young woman said. "But its unusual… he never really shows any interest in women."

"Is it really that surprising?" Arabella asked as a young man with a long nose nodded.

"Yeah it is. As far as all of us know that he usually treats women the same as men, especially in a fight."

"I wouldn't put pass him to see people in that kind of lens. Women can get scary to the point where they can kill you. They really don't need brute strength to do so either."

"I can agree with you on that," Said the young man with the long nose as he hid behind Luffy when he got deadly glares from the cook and owner, which Luffy simply laughed.

"Well! It's late and Choppa won't be in until morning, so let's go!" Luffy said as he led them out of the restaurant, saying his thanks to 'Sanji', the cook, and 'Nami', the owner before heading to a building that he lives in.

"We have patrol duty, so you can rest here," Said the long nose young man, Usopp. "We'll be back around."

"Take your time, thank you very much for letting me stay," She said as she bowed.

"Not a problem. Well, later!" Luffy said as he and Usopp went out to their rounds.

Arabella sighed as she made herself comfortable and started to drift off to sleep. When she woke up, it wasn't very light out, but she got up to see that both young men were fast asleep and she let them be as she stretched and figured an early morning walk is the ticket to get her a bit more awake. She headed out and was a bit nerved that the whole town was as silent as the calm spring wind.

Arabella wandered around as the sun's light was lighting up the town, dispelling the early morning mist that settled in town. She then headed to the entry of the forest that was next to town, over the bridge where the stream continued to flow underneath it. She looked around the calm, quiet nature of the forest as she explored deeper into the forest.

When the sun was high enough in the sky, she turned around to head back out of the forest, only to be stopped by someone that looks like they would belong in a circus.

"Lost are you? Girlie?" asked the man as a few others appeared from the bushes.

She looked around to see that she was surrounded. 'Okay… maybe it was a bad idea to take a short stroll in the forest…' Arabella thought as the clown looking men were closing in on her.

"Oi."

Everyone stopped and looked up to see Zoro, resting on a branch of a tree just above them.

"How many times do I have to kick your asses until you learn to get the fuck off of this area?" He asked as he got up and jumped down next to her. "If you don't want to die then leave now."

"S-Shit!" Said the men as they ran.

"Weak…" He said as he looked down at her. "You okay?"

"Yeah, thanks for that," She said as sighed in relief, "Next time I go for a stroll, I keep to the town."

He shrugged as he looked around. "Aren't you supposed to go to Doctor Chopper?"

"Yes, I was just taking a morning stroll and I was on my way back."

"Okay, we better get back to town then," He said as he was taking the wrong way to town.

"Um, Sir, the town is this way."

"Zoro."

"Huh?"

"My name is Zoro, not 'sir'."

"Sorry, I didn't think it would be right for me to call you by your name formally."

He waved it off as he took the right way for a while before he turned to a different direction.

"Zoro, that won't lead to town," She said as she thought she saw the other blush. "Though the trees do make it look like everything is the same. One can easily get lost in here if they're not careful."

"Yeah," He said as he followed her until they were back in town and then met up with Luffy, who laughed and telling Usopp that everything was okay and to stop worrying before leading them to where Chopper lives and received the medicine.

"You're gonna leave?" Luffy asked.

"I have to, but I'll come back," She said as she adjusted her bag on her shoulder. "Thank you for your hospitality," She thanked as she bowed properly.

Luffy smiled, "You're welcome, and be sure you come back! I think Zoro will be lonely if you don't."

"Oi, oi," Zoro said as he bopped the other's head before looking at her. "Have a safe trip."

She blushed as she nodded. "I will, I'll see you in about a week then," She said as she started to head out.

"You're just going to let her go by herself?" Usopp asked Zoro, who looked at the two young men.

"What? She said she'll be back in a week."

"A lot can happen a week, can it Luf?"

"Yeah… And rumor has it that Big Nose and his family are being active again…" Luffy said.

Zoro looked at the two before groaning out a curse and ran after the girl. "Oi! Wait up!" He called out, making her look back, a look of confusion on her face. "After that stunt earlier with some of Buggy's cronies, there's no way I'm letting you go back to that town alone."

She blinked as she nodded. "Okay, that seems logical," She said as she smiled. "Thank you Zoro."

He nodded as he looked on ahead. "Let's go then," He said as both headed to the next town together.

Luffy laughed as he watched them go, "Zoro really likes her. I bet they'll have a lot of fun exploring together."

"Oi, she said she's a traveler, not an explorer."

"What's the difference?" He asked as the other sighed.


	10. At Peace

**Title: At Peace – Rating: T**

Roronoa Zoro is a young man in his early twenties as he works as an assistant instructor in the college gym that allowed kendo lessons. He liked his job and he was okay with school, but he just didn't like the people he had to deal with on a daily basis.

"Hey Grasshead!"

He sighed as he was about to enter his classroom. 'Great… it's that asshole again…' He thought as he turned to see one of few new faces in the campus, fresh out of high school and apparently the scumbag there that just can't let go; the idiotic tough guy who wants to prove something to those who are different. He hated these guys more than anything.

"Hey! Didn't you hear me?"

"No, just the pleasant sounds of the squawking birds that laugh at your expense."

"What was that you piece of shit?"

He sighed, not wanting to deal with any more stupid people who don't know when to grow up. "Aren't you a bit old to pull that kind of crap? You're not in high school you know," Zoro said as he opened the door to see his teacher, who looked up to motion him in when the idiot decided to try to drag him to a fight, which the teacher put a stop to before he could do anything about it.

The day didn't get better as one of the students he was assisting in learning kendo was a stubborn ten year old whose parents go to school somewhere in campus and apparently hadn't been slapped enough to stop being a brat. Oh how he wanted to give that kid a few whacks of his three sword style, but he likes his job and would like to teach after he's through and he wasn't going to let some miniature punk ruin that for him, but he was always hard on the brat that made the kid's parents complain, which he simply told them that he did so because it was part of the learning process and he needed to learn discipline.

Zoro also has a second job that he took up and he didn't really like it, but he wouldn't mind the extra money he can get, so he can rent out an empty building lot that he can use as his own training facility. Then there's the whole legal business that has to be signed and what not, but he was willing to get it done.

The only down side was that he wouldn't have enough time with Arabella, but she's the kind of woman that understood him to a point of no questions, and Arabella never really questioned him. When he told her about the lot and about getting a second job to get it, she immediately helped him get a job at a convenience store. She and the girls knew the man that ran the place and it was supposed to be family run, but his three kids moved out for better job opportunities and his wife was too ill to work anymore and was looking for a few trusted individuals to help run the store for him. So now he does the night shift, which was not all that exciting, but he was paid decently and he gets to see what stragglers at the late hour do, which most of the time was down-right weird.

So now, here he was, minding the counter as he was, without a doubt in his mind, bored out of his mind that he could cry, if he didn't have his pride as a man. There was a couple, young, high school no doubt, picking out what kind of box of condom to use that it almost made him sick, but at least they're being somewhat responsible. But as they came up to purchase said box of condoms, the girl was obviously a bimbo wannabe with dyed blonde hair that you have to wear shades at night, florescent hot pink lipstick, heavy makeup, and a giggle so nauseous, Zoro thought he was going to have to buy some pills to keep him from getting sick. The boy with her wasn't any better, he smelled ripe of something drug related, and his eyes looked like he hadn't slept in weeks, plus he looked like he worn the same clothes for a week. He gave them their change and watched them straggle out.

"That is so sad," He said to himself as he thanked the higher powers out there that Arabella and her friends were not like that.

"Hon?"

He looked up to see Arabella, a smile on her face seemed to lighten the room as he stared dumbly at her.

"Hon? Are you okay?"

"Yeah… Just surprised to see you here," Zoro said as she giggled.

"I'm not surprised," Arabella said as she placed some items on the counter, "And don't even think about giving a discount for helping you find this job and being your girlfriend."

He grinned as he rung the items up and did the usual process of taking money and giving change. "Party going on?"

She shrugged. "I guess. We're having an Asian horror movie fest going on. I won't be going to sleep until three."

He chuckled, "Have fun then."

"You try to get some rest," She said, looking much like a wife.

"Yes Dear," He said as she mentioned him close, which he leaned forward, earning a kiss before she leaned back and picked up her bag of snacks.

"I'll see you later then."

"Yeah…" He said as he watched her walk out, grinning, "And once again, everything is at peace." He chuckled, thinking that his evening shift wasn't so bad.


	11. Dreamer

**Title: Dreamer – Rating: PG**

Arabella sighed as she leaned back in the chair as she took her glasses off, wiped the dust off of it, and placed it back on to see a computer screen with a list of items that she had put in today. Oh how she wished she could play her own music instead of the fifties elevator music the office she was in had on. But she wasn't going to complain as she looked at the little clock at the very bottom right hand corner of the screen and smiled that she only has an hour before clocking out.

'And then I get to go home, get ready, and go see Zoro!' She thought happily. 'He says he has a surprise for me too!'

Arabella likes surprises, but she loves to think up what it could be. Though she won't get her hopes up for anything that she can think up, but it was fun for her especially while she was working on her part-time/temp job of putting information of products into the list which is connected to the company's website.

Don't get her wrong, she enjoys what she does, but sometimes she would like to do something while working, and since she couldn't play her king of music then daydreaming was her best bet to get through the day. And daydream she did as she pulled up an electronic form for the next product.

'I wonder what Zoro's surprise is? He's not really into surprises, receiving or giving, so this is a bit of a big deal…' She thought as she looked at the list that she was given to put in as she typed in the name and product number, price, estimated the weight of said product, the available colors the company has, and then clicked on the other tab to go to a search engine to get a picture as well as look up extra information for the product description.

'If it was something bought it would have to be not so expensive.' She thought as she smiled as she looked at the little tiger keychain she got from him. Sanji slightly ridiculed him for giving her such a poor gift, but of course she's not the typical girl as she just adored it so much it might've looks as though he was giving her an expensive ring or a puppy; that shut Sanji up for a good hour. He got it at one of those game machines when they were in an arcade, and it reminded him of her due to her apron.

It was deemed her lucky charm after that and she would go to a close panic attack if it went missing, which Luffy and his friend, Usopp, found the hard way when they just wanted to play a prank on her.

_She liked the long nosed young man enough, and when she was making something in the kitchen, she realized that she was out of a certain ingredient and was going to go out to get more when she noticed the charm wasn't on her purse where it should be. She asked if anyone saw it, which only consisted of Ran, Luffy, and Usopp at the time and they replied no. Ran was using the restroom when it happened, not knowing her boyfriend and his friend were the culprits to the prank. They looked everywhere for fifteen minutes before they regrouped and all replied they couldn't find it, thus making her teary eyed, unaware that this made Luffy and Usopp feel guilty and the long nosed young man made it quick by making it seem he noticed something under the couch, went down and made it look like he was reaching back under the couch, when in reality he had the charm in hand, went back up to show it to her, which she was thrilled to have it back._

_Later on while they were eating and Zoro came to join them, after some time delay due to idiots giving me the wrong directions here. Luffy blurted out that he and Usopp wanted to play a prank on her and Usopp became pale as he saw murderous looks from both Ran and Zoro, while a hurtful one from her. Ran bonked Luffy's head and wanted to wring Usopp's neck, while Zoro told Luffy to shut up and gave Usopp a stern warning about trying to pull that kind of shit with his girlfriend again would lead him to an early grave. She however told Usopp that, as punishment, that he would clean up the kitchen and will not leave until he got her okay, both angered persons in the room told her she was too nice but she did like Usopp and he honestly didn't mean any harm._

'Maybe it could be flowers… He gave me a bouquet of lilies before.' She thought as she finished with at least three products and was half an hour away from clocking out.

_Zoro wasn't really the romantic type like Sanji, but he did have his moments, and one time she was having a bad day and it was raining that day. She loved the rain, but only when it's much lighter and not pounding, and she was inside her own place and not at work. She had been sprayed on once by a passing car over a large puddle, missed the bus to get home and had to wait in the rain, because she forgot her umbrella, and she had to sit next to a very rude, and possibly mentally disturbed person who talked about twenty different and unrelated scenarios within a minute while being rude to the driver and then starting to sing 'twinkle little star' and the alphabet song at the same time. And by the time she finally got home all she wanted was to change her soaked clothes and crawl under the covers and escape the world for a few hours. But what she got instead when she entered her apartment was Zoro, on the couch, asleep with a bouquet of Lily of the Valley, her favorite flower. _

_She had to smile as she went up, called out to him that he woke up a bit to see her, soaked, and remembered why he was there as he wordlessly moved the flowers towards her, having her smell the sweet fragrance. "Bad day?"_

"_It's getting better," She said as she took the flowers and headed to the kitchen, found a place to put the flowers in, filled it with water and told him that she was going to change into something dry before going into her room to change into her white and green pinstripe pajamas before going back out to see that he was taking a nap again. She smiled as she went up and laid on top of him, joining the nap as well._

She blinked from her daydreaming/remembering and saw that she should've been out of here a few minutes ago and started to get everything shut down, letting someone know that she's clocking out and headed to her bus stop. 'Maybe it's something hand-made?' Arabella thought as she knew he wasn't really a crafty person, but he wasn't so bad with flower arrangements. 'There's so many possibilities to what it could be.' She thought with a smile as she showed her pass to the driver and found a seat. 'Could it be a home cooked meal then? Or he's taking me out?' She then added a possible thought with a blush. 'Or could it be something intimate?' She shook her head. 'Whatever it is, I'm sure it'll be worth it.'

When she arrived at her apartment's door, she saw a sticky note pasted there. She picked it up and looked at it.

'_Hope you had a good enough day. Ready for your surprise? Zoro'_

Arabella smiled as she opened the door peeked inside to see that nothing has changed inside of the apartment. She entered the apartment, took off her shoes and looked around for any note as she found one where the coat rack is.

'_Dress in something comfortable, I'll be out here when you're ready.'_

She was a bit confused by that, but she followed the instruction and went to her shared room and changed into what she thought was comfortable and headed out, and sure enough there Zoro was, looking at the magazine with no interest before looking up.

"You look nice."

"Thanks. Where have you been hiding?"

He grinned. "I'm not telling."

She sighed. "Okay," she said before she smiled. "So? What's next?"

He got up as he raised a brow. "It depends. Do you trust me?"

She tilted her head. "Well that's a silly question. Of course I do," she said as he went up to her and grabbed her hand.

"Then close your eyes."

She did as she was told as he instructed her to walk, being careful about where she was going as he placed the shoes on for her and they headed out of the apartment.

She sensed that she was on the bus now and sat next to Zoro, who wrapped an arm around her. She leaned her head on his shoulder, enjoying the moment.

"This is our stop," Zoro said after fifteen minutes of riding the bus, and both got up to head out of the bus, guiding his girlfriend out safely. "You're doing great."

"Well I got a great boyfriend guiding me," she said as she listened to shuffling feet and chatting people, and she could smell the stale air from someone smoking and the smell of spices from someone cooking. "I'm curious of where you're taking me though."

"We're just about there," he said as he started to guide her through the mass of people that are around, holding her hand tightly and keeping her close.

Soon, she sensed that there were less people, noise and more the ground became softer. She imagined walking from a city scene and into a park. It's was unlikely but then when you're told to close your eyes and being led, the only thing to do without sight is just imagine something.

Then suddenly she heard something that sounded like gentle laps and the salty scent of the ocean and the fisheries nearby filled the air. "Near the ocean?"

"That's right."

"Are we nearby the docks then?"

"Right again," he said as he took out the keys and opened a gate to get to the marina dock.

Now she imagined the docks similar to her grandparent's boat used to be, where there was a tin roof that provided both shade and shelter from the rain as boats slightly bobbed in the water. She loved that marina as a child, she had a lot of fond memories of those time that she couldn't help but dream it in her mind at this moment.

"Ara?"

"Huh?" she mumbled, coming out of her own mind as he chuckled.

"You're not falling asleep on me are you?"

"No, just the smell here reminds me of something from my childhood," she said as she giggled, "I guess I was in memory land for a moment." This made him laugh.

"Good to know," he said as he picked her up bridal style, "Hold on."

Arabella did, not expecting that at all as she wrapped her arms around his neck as she felt him walk up some steps, then the footing became different as he used one arm to hold her up now and knew that they were now on a boat, having to do that as well if she was carrying something for her grandparents. "Zoro?"

"Keep your eyes closed..." he said as he set her down on what felt like the front deck of the ship as he guided her hands to hold onto something to keep her steady. "Wait here, and don't move."

She agreed as she started to imagine being on a boat just like her grandparents as she felt the motor run and the wind seemed to pick up as the boat started to move. 'Okay… this is a bit much of a surprise as any.' She thought as she could imagine the silvery spray alongside the boat as it headed out to the dark blue ocean with the full moon's gentle light reflecting on the still water of the ocean. Soon the boat hummed to a halt and she heard Zoro move about the boat, possibly putting down the anchor and then went inside the boat to grab something. Then minutes later he came back and chuckled.

"You have your eyes closed this whole time?"

"Of course I did!"

"That's good, because you can finally open them."

She did and saw the ocean; under a clear night sky as the very last rays of the sun is disappearing, allowing the moon's light to take over along with its billions of diamond stars. "This is beautiful…" She awed as she was handed a glass of white wine. "Thank you," she said as she made room for him to sit beside her as they enjoyed a drink under the night sky in the middle of the ocean. "This is amazing Zoro."

"Glad you like it."

"I love it!" she exclaimed as she looked at him. "I think you might've proven Sanji wrong when he mentioned last week that you weren't romantic."

Zoro grinned as he took another swig of his drink. "Then you tell him that," He said as he looked at the moon. "A drink under a calm clear sky is good, but share it with good company then its great."

She blushed as she took a sip of her wine. "It truly is beautiful. Haven't I mentioned something like this on our first date?"

"Yeah, you did actually."

"So you remembered! I'm so glad you brought me here."

"You were probably wondering where the hell I was taking you though."

"A little, but I trust you and here we are."

"Maybe a bit too trusting," he said with a raised brow.

"Hon. If I felt even something out of place, I would've stopped and opened my eyes."

"True. And you're the kind of girl that when someone earns your trust, they could do just about… 'about' being the key word here… to do whatever they want with you."

"Most of the time I do what I feel like it though."

"I know," he said as he finished his glass. "You enjoying yourself so far?"

She nodded. "Yes, I'm still in awe about this."

"Well… sorry to have to tell you this then, but I got dinner ready below deck."

"No way…" she said as she shook her head, "First a romantic moon watching with wine and now dinner? This is has to be some dream."

Zoro reached over to pinch her cheek, earning an 'ow' from her as she nodded in confirmation that she wasn't dreaming and the man before is really her man. "Now that we proved that this isn't a dream," he got up and held out his hand. "Shall we go down and eat?"

She grabbed his hand and followed him to the door, leading to the house part of the boat and went through the tiny living room and into the small kitchen area, where she was set down on the booth-like seat while he brought out some onigiris, making her smile as he set them down.

"Sorry it's nothing fancy."

"If it was, I'm going to have to ask you to pinch me again," Arabella said as she took one, taking a bite. "Besides, I'm not like those girls in those overly romantic movies. Romantic comedies maybe, but there's still that line of movie reality and real reality."

"Here, here," he said as they spent the next hour just talking before she was starting to get tired.

They headed to the back part of the boat where there was a large bed for them to share.

"Were you expecting something?"

"Not unless you're in the mood," he said, clearly not expecting anything more after this point in the surprise romantic date.

She smiled as they went on the bed and she cuddled up to him before finding his lips and kissed him before parting. "Thank you for this amazing date."

He nodded as he brought her closer. "You're welcome," he said when a moment of silence passed when he spoke again. "Still awake?"

"A bit," she said.

"How long have we dated?"

She thought for a moment before answering. "About three to four months…"

"Have I ever said 'I love you' in those months?" That woke her up as she looked at him, who turned his head to look at her. "I'm going to take that as a no then."

"Do you?"

He nodded, "I love you."

She smiled as her heart beat suddenly had a jump start. "I love you too, Zoro."

He smiled as he nodded. "I know," he said as he kissed her, running his tongue to her lower lip, earning a squeak. "It's just kissing, 'Hon'." he teased, using that private nickname back at her.

She was beet red as she hid her face at the crook of his neck. "I-I wasn't prepared f-for that!"

He chuckled as he rolled his eyes in amusement. "You're too adorable for your own good, you know that?"

"Every day," she said, making her giggle as she peeked up. "I love you."

"Love you. Good night," he said as he kissed her forehead and both went to sleep.

She didn't really dream that night, she rarely did due to doing that most part of the day, but this is one dream isn't a figment of her imagination; it was now the greatest moment in her life.


	12. Everyday Magic

**Title: Everyday Magic – Rating: T**

"Oi, Marimo."

"What is it Crap Cook?"

Sanji was out in the Farmer's Market and Zoro was dragged into it when Kaytlyn wanted Arabella to help cook for their guys, since it was a surprise dinner.

"Why is it that you and Arie-chan still together?"

Zoro glared at the blonde, "What are you saying?"

Arabella and Zoro had been dating for nearly half a year, and so far things have been well between them; much to the surprise to the former flirtatious blonde chef.

"I'm saying that a sweet, innocent, young woman such as herself should be with a more… sensible mate…" Sanji said.

"Like you…" Zoro said dully. "First off, you can get the fuck out of my business. Two, Arabella can choose whoever she damn well wants, and I just happen to be the guy she's chosen. And third off, you don't have the right to say anything like that!"

"I beg the differ on that third one," Sanji said. "As someone who knows you a shit load longer than any of the girls, I'm just saying that you're not the kind of guy for someone like Arie-chan."

"What's wrong with that? She certainly doesn't see anything wrong with who I am, like some people."

Sanji sighed as he planned on asking Arabella later on, while Zoro was now not even in a tolerable mood towards the blond.

When they returned from the market, Sanji was happy to see the young women finishing up dinner while the ingredients they were sent out to get were for a dessert dish that Arabella found from her grandmother's recipe book and wanted to try it.

"I'll help!" Sanji happily exclaimed when he was pushed aside.

"No! I will!" Zoro said with a vicious glare. "You back off!" He then went into the kitchen where Arabella seemed concerned, but waited until they were in the safety of the kitchen and out of earshot.

"Everything okay?"

"Just crap cook getting on my nerves again!"

"Oh, okay," she said as she directed him to cut some of the rutabaga.

Both were quiet for a moment before Zoro cut up enough of the bitter vegetable into the pot to boil.

"Ara…" Zoro said as she was getting the pie pans ready.

"Yes?"

He scratched his head. "This is going to sound really stupid… But… Have you ever… thought about having a different boyfriend?"

She looked at him as if he had grown another head. "Where on earth have you put that in mind?" she asked.

"Just answer the question…"

"Nope."

"How come?"

"Because you really don't make a bad boyfriend. Sure you may be stubborn sometimes, but no relationship is perfect," she explained as she tilted her head to the side. "You treat me right, you usually tell me what's on your mind, and there are times you are sweet to me that even Sanji can't really compare. And I've seen him being sweet to Lyn."

"Don't compare me with him."

"I'm not, I'm just saying," Arabella said with her hands up and a smile. "Is that what's bothering you?"

He didn't answer as he looked at the boiling pot. "How long do these things have to stay in?"

She smiled as she went next to him and looked at the pot but then brought them away from the stove. "Roronoa Zoro. Remember the very first time we met?"

"That night in that club?" Zoro asked as she nodded. "Where I got you a drink and I simply complained about all bullshit that came up while you listened, not questioning or anything."

"Yep," Arabella said with a smile, "And you know something?"

"What?"

"I could've not come over when you mentioned me over," she said as she went on her tip toes and kissed his cheek. "But I'm glad I did." She then went over to check on the pot.

Meanwhile, out where Sanji and Kaytlyn are, Sanji asked her about Arabella's and Zoro's relationship and her take on it.

"Well, Zoro has been nothing but good to her. And Arie always has something good to say about him, even though most of the dates she tells us is a bit strange before we found out that he has no sense of direction, but she always enjoys them when they go out," Kaytlyn said as she shrugged, "Arie is just one of those women that have that certain trait that guys like Zoro are attracted to. Much like Luffy seems to have that strange attraction to everyone he meets."

Sanji can't argue with that. "I still can't figure it out though… Why would she go for him?"

"Because she can and will continue unless he screws up."

"And what does she see in him? I've known the guy longer, and I don't see any redeeming qualities in an oaf like him."

"You're not Arie," Kaytlyn said simply as Arabella and Zoro went out of the kitchen.

"The pies are going to take at least a half an hour to cool. Then we'll have ice cream with it."

"Good to know," Kaytlyn said as her cell went off, "That must be Ran, she said she'd call." Taking out her cell, she answered, "Hey, Lyn here." She then looked confused as she handed the phone to Arabella. "I think you should take this."

Arabella took the phone and answered it before sighing like a bemused mother. "Let me talk to him," she said as she excused herself while saying 'Hey there, Luffy,' before disappearing into one of the rooms.

"And there she goes into 'Mamma-san' mode," Kaytlyn said as she shook her head. "She's one of the few people Luffy will intentionally listen to when the tone is authoritative enough."

"How does she do that?" Sanji asked as Kaytlyn giggled.

"Ran said it's because she has that 'everyday magic' thing about her that just draws only the people worthy of her time."

Zoro grinned as he looked at Sanji, who glared at him and flipped him off .

When she was done on the phone, Arabella handed back Kaytlyn's phone back to her and looked up at everyone. "Okay! Who's ready for pie?" she asked happily, which made Zoro smile. Sanji took full notice of the motion.

'Her own everyday magic, huh?' He asked himself as he followed everyone in the room to the kitchen.


	13. Exhaustion

**Title: Exhaustion – Rating: PG**

Zoro was packed and ready to go to his classes for the day and he was on his way to the stairs when his neighbor from Hell called.

"Zoro! Wait up!" Nami called as Zoro groaned. "Don't give me that!" She glared as she crossed her arms. "So, you planned your next date with her?"

"She told me that she was free in a few weeks, and that I have nothing to do for that week. So yeah, we planned our next date."

"Well then you're going to be extra busy."

"What the hell?"

"You still have a debt to pay off," she said with an evil grin, "and with you dating now, it will make it hard on you to pay it off."

"Fuck you," he said as he turned away and started walking. "I don't need to listen to this..."

Later that day, he came back from a long day of classes and doing his part-time job as an assisting instructor in the new dojo set up in the campus gym, and all he wants to do is just go back to his apartment, grab a beer, meditate, and fall asleep. But when he arrived to get to his apartment door, he saw Arabella and Nami talking in the hallway. 'Fuck me…' He thought as Nami looked his way and waved him over.

"Hey Zoro!" Nami called out in that false sweet tone of hers when she thinks she's got the upper hand. "Look who's come to visit you! Why didn't you tell me how cute she is?"

"Because it's none of your business," he said with a glare her way as he raised a questionable look. "Hey there Arabella. How did you know where to find me?"

"Luffy told me where you live," Arabella said as she held up a bag. "He said he's returning the stuff he borrowed from you sometime a go."

"Oh, thanks."

"He would've given the stuff to you himself, but he and Ran had a date… Well, more like Ran was dragged into it."

Zoro shook his head. "She's going to need a lot of help with him," he said as she giggled.

"I know, he practically shoved the bag to me with the directions taped on it and just grabbed Ran and took off. Since I didn't have anything else to do so I figured I'd stop by. And then I met Nami."

"And we've been talking about you," Nami said as she wrapped an arm around the other girl, who seemed a bit uncomfortable. "And I must say, I didn't know you can be such a sweet heart!"

Zoro rolled his eyes as he grabbed Arabella's wrist and dragged her away from Nami and into his apartment.

"Don't do anything kinky!" Nami called out, which he went back out to flip her off before slamming the door closed.

"She's… interesting…" Arabella said as she placed the bag on the coffee table.

"Just don't take in everything she says. She's okay on a good day, but she's a pain most days."

"Sounds like you know each other."

"We used to go to school together, but we were hardly friends." he said as he glared at the wall. "She has this dumbass idea that I owe her a shit load of money. In fact I'm still in debt in her crazy monetary system."

"That's pretty harsh."

"Tell that to her. She's done the same with Luffy, but he keeps forgetting it because he has his own place with Usopp. And crap cook has it, but he pays it off to the point of bankruptcy. Though I do believe he's off now that he's dating Kaytlyn."

"And you and Luffy aren't?"

"I think she's given up on Luffy…" he said as he waved it off, "Never mind all that. Would you like something to drink? I got water, beer, and if Luffy hasn't finished it off, then some juice."

"I'm okay for now, thank you," she said as he went into the kitchen and took out a beer, opened it, and gulped down at least half a bottle. "Bad day today? You seem tired."

"It was a long day, and I'm exhausted," he said as she mentioned him to sit down. "You don't have to stay Arabella," he continued as he felt hands on his shoulders, massaging them. "What are you doing?"

"What does it look like? I'm massaging your shoulders."

"Why?"

"Because you had a long day and need to relax a bit," she said as he was going to protest but she kissed him on the forehead, shocking him a bit. "Don't try to tell me otherwise. I want to do this and you just relax and enjoy it."

Zoro shut up as he leaned down so she had more access to his back, which he had to admit it felt really good that he nearly fell asleep. Then she stopped and mentioned him to lie back on the couch and take a nap, which he didn't resist and closed his eyes.

Arabella found a blanket to put over the sleeping man and took a moment to watch him sleep before heading out of the apartment and headed to Nami's apartment.

"Oh, hey there! What's going on?" Nami asked when she opened the door.

"Hey Nami, I just wanted to talk while Zoro rests up."

"He fell asleep again? I swear he sleeps more than a cat does."

"Well he does go to school and work at the same time. He probably needs all the rest he can get to tackle a very stressful day."

"I guess…" Nami mumbled as she poured a couple tangerine teas and handed one to her, "Here you go."

"Thank you," she said as she took a sip and complemented on the drink before mentioning about the whole debt thing.

Nami laughed as she set her drink down. "Yeah, he owes me a lot."

"For what?"

"A lot of things."

"Don't you think that's a bit unfair?"

"It's one of my ways to keep that idiot in line, Bella," she said as Arabella flinched. "I mean, I know you two just started dating and all that, but I know him a lot longer than you."

"Obviously," Arabella said as she placed the drink down. "But don't you think this whole debt thing has gone far enough? Does it serve any real purpose at all?" She looked up at Nami in a serious, close to angry mothering tone. "I mean really? How long do you expect to continue this childish debt thing on him when he's clearly trying to get things together for himself?" She hummed as she lifted a brow to her. "Well? How much longer are you going to continue these debt tabs that only serve for your amusement and his annoyance that he doesn't need right now. And you should be focusing on something other than his or anyone else's debts you have put tabs on since who knows how long."

Nami was a bit shocked by the change of tone and personality, but she just grinned and waved it off. "It's not like I'm hurting anyone. And if they really do need to keep the money to pay off something, then they can. I'll simply in… crease…" she drifted off as she started to realize that her good fun of putting the guys in debt did have a downside to it.

Arabella could see that Nami hesitated and nodded. "Yeah, you may not be hurting anyone, but you and everyone you put debts on are no longer in high school."

"I… I guess I should take it easy. Since I'm learning to be a financial advisor…"

"How about just starting fresh and do so in a much more structured way of doing things, now that you know better."

"I guess you're right…" Nami agreed as Arabella got up.

"Well, it looks like we're in an agreement," she said as she held out her hand, "I'll see myself out, but it was great to meet you, Nami."

Nami took her hand and shook it, noting the grip she had on hers. "No problem," she said as they let go. "It was nice to meet you as well. I can see why he likes you."

"It's still early in our relationship, but thank you," she said as she was heading towards the door. "Oh, and Nami…" Arabella turned to look at the confused look of the other girl. "For future knowledge, I downright dislike the nickname 'Bella'." With that, she left the apartment and headed back to Zoro's, where she decided to make dinner for the both of them.

When Zoro finally woke up, he was surprised to see that Arabella was just finishing up cooking up dinner and they had dinner together before Ran and Luffy came in, hung out a bit and both girls headed out of the apartment to go back to their own apartment.

The next morning, Zoro headed out of his apartment to get to the bus to the campus when he saw Nami just walking out. "Morning."

"Oh! Zoro! Hold up."

"If it's about that dumbass debt thing again,"

"It is and isn't," she said as she held up what looks like a list of things. "See this?"

"Yeah…"

"This is all the things you owed since freshmen year in high school."

"Why the hell are you bri-" He halted when she ripped the piece of paper into pieces before his eyes.

"Consider this as a fresh start," she said as she went past him. "You have your girlfriend to thank!"

Zoro stood there for a moment as he took out his cell and texted to Arabella what she do to Nami last night, which was responded.

'Nothing. We simply talked. Have a good day.'

He grinned as he felt good about today.


	14. Stirring in the Wind

**Title: Stirring in the Wind – Rating: PG**

It was autumn in the city and Arabella was waiting by the park for Zoro so they can meet up with the others to see the latest movie for their theatre month which they have once a month. She checked her watch and was a bit concerned.

"He's later than usual, even when he does get lost…" she muttere to herself as she shivered from the wind. She looked down at her feet and thought about her time with Zoro.

Arabella and Zoro have been dating to a close year now and she couldn't be happier with the man she can call a boyfriend without hesitance.

"Oi! Ara!" Zoro called out, bringing her back to the present. "Shit," He stopped as he seemed to be running a cross country marathon. "That session lasted longer than needed, and that asshole of a bus driver dropped me off of the wrong stop!"

'He got lost.' she thought as she let him breathe before telling him that it was okay and that she was just glad that he was okay.

"You're such a wife," he said, making her giggle.

She remembered when he first said that after four months of dating and it was after a movie date when someone opened the theatre door too quickly, hitting him in the face and made his nose bleed. She dragged him to the men's restroom, not caring about the men that were already in there doing their thing.

"_I'm fine…" Zoro groaned out in annoyance._

"_You're still bleeding like a runny faucet," Arabella stated as she grabbed another few paper towels, doused them a little with water and carefully placed it under his nose while he dully stared at her with hint of annoyance, but not doing anything to stop her._

_After fifteen minutes and half a paper towels in the dispenser later, Zoro's nose stopped bleeding and they missed at least five minutes of the movie they were going._

"_Are you sure your nose isn't broken?" she asked on their way to the theatre._

"_You're such a wife, you know that?" he replied as he looked at her dully._

They were halfway to the movie theatre when the sudden stirring of the wind picked up, making her rub her arms when Zoro wrapped his arm around her shoulders, bringing her close to him. She immediately felt warm, but she was happy as well.

"Better?" he asked as she nodded.

"Thank you Zoro."

"I just don't want you getting sick. But you're welcome," he said as they reached the theatre, where everyone looked a bit annoyed due to both of them being a bit late, but thankfully they've chosen a later timed movie and went to the small pizzeria not far from the theatre and ate there before going to the movie.

Sometime during the movie, Arabella felt a breeze that made her shiver and leaned against Zoro, who wrapped an arm around her and she immediately felt warm. After the movie, Mia was going to drive the girls back to the apartment while Law was doing the same for the guys, which is more of a pain for him because the guys live in separate apartments.

Arabella looked up at Zoro as he looked down at her. "This was fun."

"I guess," he said. "At least it wasn't a cheesy romance." She giggled as he lifted her chin and kissed her. "Good night," he whispered on her lips as he leaned back to see the dusty rose on her cheeks, which made him grin.

"Good night…" she said as the other girls were waiting on her, which he turned her around and playfully pushed her towards them, making her laugh as she waved at him before entering Mia's car and taking off.

That night she closed the bedroom window, due to it being chilly and the air coming into the room has made her feel a little uneasy. She curled up in three blankets, but she still didn't feel comforted. She was used to having Zoro's arm around her to give her the warmth and comfort needed, but she was a somewhat tough girl and can get by a month without that, because it would be like an oasis when they do meet up again. It still surprises her that the small things like that can take on a physical, mental, and emotional symptoms that could drive a normal, single person to go insane.

The next morning she was in the middle of filling in for someone on the cashier desk whom was helping a newbie out with understanding the cashier and how to work the system. While waiting, her second in command boss came out with her cell phone that she left in the back to charge, and told her that the hospital called and that Zoro was in an accident.

At first it took her a moment to process what was just said before going to the back to call Mia, who was on her way to bring lunch to Law and told her what she had been told. Mia quickly came by to pick her up as she told her second boss that she'll call if anything happens. Before she knew it, they were on their way to the hospital.

Once they were there, Mia led the way to Law's office, flipping and bitching at other people off that tried to stop them when they finally found Law who was looking over Zoro on the cot, a bloody bandage over his left eye.

"Zoro!" Running up to him as both men looked at her. "Are you okay? What happened?" She questioned before she looked at Law. "He's going to be okay, right?"

"Calm down. I'm going to look into more of what he may have screwed up, but the only thing that's in critical condition is his eye," He answered as a nurse said there's a room ready for him. He ordered a few nearby doctors and nurses to drag in Zoro to that said room. "Mia! You and Arabella stay in the waiting room!" He called out before disappearing behind the E.R. doors.

Arabella wasn't able to sit still though as she practically walked laps around the waiting room, which might've annoyed everyone there including Mia. No one tried to stop her though or give a complaint as she felt that darn change in the wind coming in from the automatic doors at the front of the hospital. She shivered from it as she stopped for a moment, realizing that her work shoes, not the most comfortable ones, were hurting her soles but that seemed to give her a reason to continue moving. Two hours later, Law finally came out saying that she's able to see him and told her the news about him losing his left eye and things of the like.

She didn't waste any time as she quickly headed over to the recovery room that Zoro was in and saw that he was okay, bored and a bit annoyed with the bandages, but alive and well.

"Hon, quit messing with your bandages," she said as she brought his hand down from the bandages, "Or else the nurses will be all over you." She smiled as the other scoffed.

"Like that will ever happen," he said dully as she giggled.

"You are handsome enough to be drooled over by the younger nurses here," she said as he rolled his one good eye before he looked at her, asking her what Law had to say about his left eye. She told him what Law had told her before silence filled the room for a moment before she gained some courage to ask him if it was going to be okay with him. His answer was only a shrug.

"Sure it's going to be a fucking bitch training with only one good eye, but it's not the end of the world," Zoro answered as he looked her way. "What about you? Will this affect you?"

Arabella was confused for a moment before telling him that she wasn't going to split so easily for something so small, which he chuckled and mentioned on the cot. She blushed but did so, enjoying the embrace she was in while liking the feel of his rough, labored hands go through her hair to the nape of her neck. Then she realized something, the window to the room was open, brining in crisp, warm autumn air into the room. 'Strange weather…' She thought as she enjoyed her visiting hours with him in that position in comfortable silence.


	15. Frost

**Title: Frost – Rating: T**

"Shit…" Mia said as she looked through the submarine's scope.

"What's the matter?" Arabella asked as she tried to figure out the map before her while Ran looked up in bored interest at their navigator and shipwright.

"We've run into an ice path. We're going to have to dive for some time."

"We are in a sub," Ran said, "Of course we're going to dive. That's the only thing that makes us way more awesome than the merchant ships that can get stuck in the ice."

"We're also exposed to the icy waters that can freeze away the power to keep this place warm and functioning. Not to mention the ability to float and sink is also something to keep in mind."

"Guys!" Kaytlyn called. "We got company at our three o'clock."

Mia went back to the binoculars and turned to the direction to see a ship with a lion's head as the don. "It's just the Strawhat pirates."

"This thing is detecting two large bodies though…" Kaytlyn muttered as Mia looked to see something yellow next to the ship.

"And the Heart pirates…"

"Well let's say hello and tag along with them," Ran said. "At least we'll find out where the fuck we are and see if they can get around this ice field."

"And it has been three months since we last talked to them," Arabella said.

"Not to mention resupplying for a least a few weeks worth of stuff," Kaytlyn added.

"It's settled then," Ran said as she pointed to Kaytlyn, "Lyn! Take us all the way up! Arie, man the signal!"

"Aye captain!" Both women rushed to do what they were told, which was for Kaytlyn to lose the water keeping them under the surface of the water and more if there was more water, and for Arabella to put up a green signal, which was similar to a stress firework signal, but they have their own system. Green was a 'hello, we come in peace', red was 'help', and they have one to create instant fog that Usopp and Franky created for them if they want to get away, as well as one they can use under water that resembled octopus ink.

"Mia! Guide us safely to the side opposite where the Heart pirates are on the Sunny."

Mia sighed. "Aye, aye…" She mumbled as she got to the wheel, brought out the sonar screen and maneuvered her way to the side and up along the Sunny.

They exited out of the sub, just in time for most of the Strawhat crew to cheer them in welcome, mostly from Luffy, Usopp, Sanji, Chopper, and Brook.

"Hey guys! Miss us?" Kaytlyn called out, which Sanji seemed to cheer out her name as if he were a dog howling at the moon.

"That would be a yes," Mia said as Shachi, Penguin, and Bepo cheered out her name with tears in their eyes. "It's good to see you too! Now quit the water works!"

"Yo! Ran!" Luffy called out as Ran waved.

"Yo! How's it hangin'?" She said as a rubber arm suddenly wrapped around her. "WAIT A DAMN-!" She was going to yell when Luffy dragged her onto the Sunny, where she landed on the snow covered grass, Luffy laughing as she recovered. "I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!"

"Ah, sorry, sorry!"

Chopper immediately looked her over as he was going to do the same with the other girls, only for Sanji to beat him to Kaytlyn, carrying her bridal style back onto the ship, Bepo carrying Mia on his back, which he earned a nice scratch behind his ear, and Zoro got Arabella on board.

"Thank you Sanji." Kaytlyn said which caused Sanji to go on a romantic poet mode, presenting a rose to her.

"Mia!" Shachi and Penguin cheered as they hugged the life out of her.

"I missed you guys too! Now let me breathe!" Mia exclaimed, but couldn't keep in the small laugh and smile at seeing the very eager puppy faces of the men and bear.

"Thanks Zoro," Arabella said as she was set down on the ice covered grass.

"Better than what your captain experienced," Zoro said as Ran and Luffy chatted, which led to her putting him in an arm lock and giving him a noggie.

"She can handle that much," Arabella replied as she shivered from the wind. "It's cold…" She wrapped her arms around herself before Zoro wrapped one arm around her.

"Come on, we were going to have dinner when we saw that green flare of yours."

Then Law came aboard and saw what was keeping his crew from helping him out back on the sub. "Well, well, well. I was wondering what was keeping you three," he said with a grin, which the two men plus bear looked a bit guilty and embarrassed while Mia blushed a bit. "Nice to see that you're still doing well."

"Of course, next to Ran I have to keep things in top shape while we're doing deliveries."

"If I may, I would like to give you and your friends a check up if you wish. I'll have Chopper help look over as well."

"I think that will be the best," Mia agreed as Law mentioned where everyone was going in.

"Care to eat first?"

Mia shrugged as she and the others followed the crew into the dining hall of the Sunny.

If anyone who knows the Strawhat pirates and meal time, it is both a party and a battle field, especially when defending your plates from the gluttonous captain.

"Thanks Ran!" Luffy called out as he chomped down on some meat that Ran let him have.

Zoro handed a bottle of some kind of ale to Arabella and mentioned her to follow him, dodging and weaving through the craziness of the crew at meal time, which Usopp, Chopper, Franky, and Brook sang while the skeleton played a song, Sanji and Kaytlyn were busy in the kitchen, Nami and Robin were amused by the happenings while Luffy talked to Ran with his mouth full, who just stared at him, and Mia and Law and his crew simply talked about what all had happened while they went their separate ways.

Soon Arabella and Zoro were up in the indoor crow's nest, which also serves as Zoro's work out room as they sat down on the window seat, watching the snow fall and seeing the sea of ice.

"Must be close to a winter island, or just the colder end of the world," Arabella said as she took a small sip of the small bottle of ale.

"Either way, this ice is a bitch to go through even on a good day," Zoro sighed before he looked at her. "How are those deliveries going along?"

"Good news, we got new clients through our current clients, expanding our business steadily. Bad news, we're going on routes that we're not entirely sure of and there are quite a few places where our group and the Marines are not on good terms."

"That sounds like a problem. What brought you out here?"

"A route that's hopefully a better route then one that would, not only tax our sub to its limits, but possibly leave us in a bad situation if it goes bad. But as you can see, we're just as stuck as you are. I mean, that tiny lump of ice way over there," she pointed to a small iceberg that was ways away from them, "can have ten miles of nothing but ice under the water surface, and for a sub like ours or even Law's, that's like this ship missing the Red Line's entrance and crashing into the rocks. And that's just us being under the water."

"Being out in the ocean, above or below the surface has tons of dangers, but a lot more opportunities."

"I guess so…" Arabella said as she looked at him. "But you get to see a lot of crazy stuff on the surface."

Zoro chuckled as he shook his head. "Most days it's on this very ship." This earned her a laugh as he laughed as well before falling into comfortable silence.

"I'll be glad when Nami gets that map completed. That would make our travels so much better."

"If you could understand it."

"Yeah, I was never good with maps," She giggled, looking back out the window, "It's snowing heavier now. At this rate you, Luffy, Franky, Sanji, Chopper, and maybe Robin, Law and his crew would have to start breaking the ice just to get out of here."

Zoro chuckled, "You know us well."

Arabella shrugged, "Well, I know you guys are crazy enough to do something like that anyway."

He laughed as he looked back out of the window as well to see the heavy snowfall. "But it's kinda funny."

"What is?"

"How frost weather like this can bring people together," he said as he turned his head so that his lone green eye landed on the red head's hazel-green ones.

"When it's cold outside, you have to be warm. And the more warmth the better," she said before blushing and had to look away back out to the window, only to see her transparent reflection, as well as Zoro's reflection as he patted her head.

"We better head back down before your captain thinks we're doing something," he said as she giggled as they headed out and back with the group, where the party continued on until everyone passed out.

When Arabella woke up, she saw that she was back up in the crow's nest, hearing grunting behind her and saw that she had the dark green coat over her. She turned to see Zoro with weights twice the size of her being lifted up and down with him doing so with one arm. "Morning Zoro."

"Morning," he said as he switched arms after he grunted out a '5000', for his other arm.

"Working out as usual I see."

"Have to remain strong. Especially with where things are going with this crew."

She giggled as she nodded understandingly. "Yeah, I understand," she said as she looked out the window to see that it stopped snowing but the skies were covered.

"Oi! Zoro!" Luffy called out, making Zoro stop what he was doing, putting the weight down and looked out the window.

"What is it?" Zoro called out.

"We're going to bust some ice!"

"Okay! I'll be right down!" He looked over at Arabella. "You stay here, it won't take us five minutes."

"Just don't fall into the icy waters."

He chuckled. "And if I do? Will you warm me up?"

She blushed, making him laugh. "That sounded so perverted!"

"Like I said yesterday. Frost weather like this brings people together," he said as he left to cut up the ice for their ships and the two subs to move.

She watched as he and the others started breaking a path of the solid ice for them to move and had to smile as she could smell the sweat on the coat she wore that was undeniably Zoro's scent. "Yeah… cold weather does that."

"SHIT ITS COLD!" The guys yelled in unison, which made some of the more reasonable members lecturing them about trying to do something without thinking about the consequences.


	16. Everything for You

**Title: Everything for You – Rating: T**

Zoro woke up with his alarm blaring like fog horn. In his sleep daze, he slammed his fist onto the snooze button and groaned as he sat up before getting out and dressed for another long day of his classes and work. He looked at his calendar and stared at it for a moment before dropping his things and took out his planner, something Nami had lectured time and time again to have on hand and flipped through it, recognizing the handwriting of his annoying neighbor before he actually took it so she can quit bitching about it. What he saw on one day was written in bright, obnoxious pink writing saying: Zoro's First Date!

He glared at it as he took note of the date and counted the days to the months after that date, and then realized that he had been dating Arabella for ten months and they have yet to do anything for some kind of anniversary, something that Sanji would, without a doubt, will remember, plan, and go all out for.

But then he remembered that Arabella wasn't like Nami or any other girl that have huge expectations for their guys to remember something like an anniversary for dating, maybe after a wedding, yes that would be a big deal, but for dating? But now that he realized that he did indeed doesn't have any school for a week, and that means he doesn't have work at the gym's dojo, but he does still have his nightshift at the convenience store.

However he did have time to think about everything that he had done with Arabella, and there were a few times he surprised even himself by doing things a bit beyond for their dates. He rented a boat for the night for his surprise date that one night after she got off work. He even bought her a bouquet of Lilies of the Valley, her favorite flower, out of the blue one day when she had a rough day. In a way those could be counted as anniversary moments, and of course she loves those times even that one time he won that little tiger keychain he won from a child's arcade game.

Arabella is just one of those one in a million women that just don't give a shit about what their guys do as long as they treat them right and they just enjoy the moment spent with them.

But maybe he should make this week somewhat an official anniversary for her, since most of what they did was somewhat spontaneous or they were with friends on a group date.

He took out his phone and texted her if she had any openings for this week in her schedule. As he waited he checked looked at his phone to see some recorded videos on there and looked through and smiled at the footage that he was able to get further proved why she's the best girlfriend in the whole entire world perfect for him, no matter what that fancy ass crap chef says. Not that he didn't mind Kaytlyn, he likes her enough but Arabella wins out in his opinion. Then he gets a text saying that she only has one day free and it was on a Friday and today was Monday. He has a week to come up with an anniversary that would top that one night on that rented boat, drinking under the moon and stars in the middle of the ocean.

And this time he might need some… help with this anniversary. And by help he means he has to call up the witch and the crap cook. He gave them both a text and started to feel the undeniable sinking sensation in his stomach. He was so screwed, but he's doing it for her.

A few minutes later there was a knock at his door and he opened it to see Nami, with a tote bag that made him feel the shadow of dread over him, followed by Sanji with a smug look on his face.

"I've been waiting for this moment." Nami said with a smile that even the Wicked Witch of the West would build a fortress upon fortress to avoid this one ginger haired witch before him. "Now," she sang as she barged into his apartment. "Let's see what we can make of you this week."

'I'm now in Hell…' Zoro thought.

A week went by and Arabella was glad it was Friday. But she hadn't heard from Zoro since Monday. If not for Kaytlyn telling her that Sanji was getting along with Zoro, which was strange, she probably would've worried like any girlfriend would be. But when she woke up on her day off, the girls were already up before her, which was unusual since she's usually up before them.

"Morning everyone." She said, a bit shocked to see that breakfast was made and ready. "You guys are up early."

"Yeah, we got a big day ahead of us." Ran said.

" 'We'?" She questioned as she bit into her toast.

"Yeah, we're going shopping at the mall today." Mia said, reading something on her laptop and drinking her juice.

"When was this agreed on?"

"Since last night when you passed out from working." Kaytlyn said. "And since you finally got a day off, all of us decided to call up people at our work places to fill our positions for the day and just have a girls' day off."

"Wow… We haven't done that in months." Arabella said as she nodded. "Okay. That sounds fun." She finished her breakfast and juice. "Since you guys are dressed and ready, I'll just be a minute." She went to her room to get ready for the day.

The other girls looked at each other and smiled.

"She can't know, right?" Ran said to Kaytlyn, who nodded.

"Yeah. Now we know how she is, so it will take all of us to convince her to get her ready for tonight."

"I'm surprised that those two didn't have an anniversary thing since they started dating." Mia said. "I'd be pissed if Law didn't do that."

"Mia… This is Zoro we're talking about. And Arie don't give a shit. She's just happy that he's still loves her." Ran said. "Now, Luffy and I, I'm practically the man of the relationship when it comes to remembering things like that. Then again, he's like Arie, he don't give a shit. He's having fun no matter where we go."

"I won't mention Sanji then. He practically plans them weeks ahead." Kaytlyn said as she looked at the two. "But that doesn't matter! What matters is that we have to get her ready!"

"Get who ready?" Arabella said as she came out in her usual attire of jeans, a shirt, tennis shoes, and her hair in its usual small high pony tail with the rest of her hair to come down at her shoulders.

"Oh, another girl that works with me needs help with a make-over for a date she's going to next week." Kaytlyn lied as the other nodded her head. "Well! If you're ready, let's go!"

"What about the dishes?" Arabella said as Ran spun her towards the door.

"Worry about it later! Right now we got things to do and the day is young!"

Arabella was surprised to see Ran act this way but shrugged as they piled into Kaytlyn's large car and they headed to the mall.

Once at the mall, the three young women practically dragged Arabella around the mall, even so much as getting her a make-over at one salon. But after a few hours of trying on so many nice looking outfits, Arabella started to question what was really going on here.

Then when she tried on a dress that caught her eye and it looked great on her, with her new straightened hair, and light makeup on her that didn't make it look like she had make up on, was when she started to feel that there was something big going on.

"That's a winner." Mia said as the girls nodded in approval.

She was wearing a dark emerald dress that slightly hugged her torso, but there was some freedom at the skirt , which ended halfway down her lower legs, for her to move if she wanted to dance in it. She was also wearing black, open toed, half inch heel shoes.

"Okay guys, what's going on?"

"What do you mean?" Mia asked in a bored tone. "You hardly ever dress up."

"Yeah… but I still have outfits just as nice as this back at the apartment."

"We know." Kaytlyn said as she took out her cell and looked to see she had a text. "Keep the dress and shoes on. This is Sanji's treat."

"Say what?" Arabella said as Kaytlyn looked at the other two.

"They're at the south entrance. I'll catch up once she's been rung up."

Ran nodded as she grabbed Arabella to the cashier's desk, where the person working behind it quickly scanned the tag on the dress before she dragged her away from the desk while Mia held up the shoe box that the shoes came from and Kaytlyn handed out the card that belongs to Sanji.

"Ran! What is going on!?" Arabella asked as they weaved through the crowds to get to the escalator down to where the south entrance of the mall is located.

"If I told you it would ruin it!"

"Ruin what?!"

"Don't make me repeat myself!" Ran said as they made it out of the mall and saw a black limo waiting by the curb. "There's your ride." She opened the door. "Now enjoy."

"What is it?"

"It's Zoro's idea. That's all you need to know." Ran said as she lifted her from the ground to put her in the seat and closed the door. "Have fun!"

"Ran!" She called out, only to sigh when the limo started to drive away from the mall. She sat down, straighten her skirt and looked around of the limo before seeing a call button and pressed it. "Hello?"

"Yes miss?"

"Could you tell me where you're taking me? I'm pretty much in the dark."

"I'm sorry miss. I cannot say."

"Okay… Thanks…" She sat in the back of the limo, feeling a bit nervous about what's going on as she looked out of the window to see that they were heading downtown and in the nicer, well-to-do, part of the city. 'There's no way Zoro would've thought this up…' She thought, knowing that he would need a really good reason to even hire a limo company to pick her up anywhere. When the limo slowed to a stop, she saw that she was facing a very fancy looking building that more nicely dressed, older, and no doubt richer folks were coming and going. She realized that this was a hotel where there's a dance hall and restaurant at the top, just under the penthouse suite as the driver opened the door for her.

"Here we are miss."

"Are you sure you picked up the right girl?"

"You are Miss Arabella Willins, are you not?"

"I am."

"Then you are in the right place."

She exited out of the limo, her legs feeling more like jell-o than what they normally should be.

"Just go on in, Miss."

She simply nodded as she headed to the gilded gold and glass doors of the hotel, only to see what she could relate to that one scene of that Titanic movie where there's a large stair case in the center back of the lobby room with ivory marble floors shined to the point where you can see your own reflection, deep ruby carpet that led from the entrance to the staircase where it branched out to the second level where the elevators to the rooms, dance hall, and restaurant would take the people who are here for their rooms, to dine, having a party, or all of the above.

To either side of her there were the desks where the staff members were talking to those who are checking in or trying to debate a dispute or settle a complaint. And everyone looked like they were at their evening best with women dressing in gowns that cost a fortune in itself that she could use to not only purchase a car of her own, but possibly a small house. And the men were not one for the eyes to pass over either, the men ranged from British looking gentlemen to chic poets and writers. And then there was her in a very nice emerald dress and black open toed shoes that probably adds up to one of the women's toy poodle's shirt with real studded gems costs. She didn't belong here, why be brought here?

She looked up at the stair case where there was one lone, gilded gold elevator that had a mosaic of a tree on the wall surrounding the frame, as its doors opened to reveal only one occupant in there and she was shocked to see who it was. "Zoro?"

There he was, dressed up in a black suit that made him look like he would've worked for Al Capone, a white silk dress shirt, and an emerald tie as he walked out of the elevator that led straight to the dance hall, restaurant, and most importantly the pent house. Some people looked at him, studying and admiring him as he stood at the top step of the staircase, looking around before his eyes fell onto Arabella's shocked form and smiled as he headed down the staircase, ignoring the looks he was getting.

'This is a dream… I'm either asleep still or I've fallen asleep in the mall.' Arabella thought as he was coming closer, seeing that his hair was somewhat combed back and held in place with some kind of gel, but still has his earrings. 'Oh higher powers he's so hot right now!' She then found herself staring at the dark green eyes that can easily hold her down without any physical assistance.

"Glad you made it." Zoro said as he lifted his arm out. "Shall we get this going then?"

She placed her hand through and was led up the stairs back to the elevator, which she saw him place a card through, which made the doors open and they entered through. Once the doors closed she had to say something. "Who are you and what have you done with Zoro?"

Zoro chuckled. "I asked myself the same question for the past week." He said as he looked down to her. "Bit much?"

"I'm still dreaming right? I know I don't usually dream like this."

"It's no dream." He said as they stopped at the pent house.

"Pent house?"

"The restaurant is too crowded." Zoro said as they exited out of the elevator to see that they were already in the room.

"Holey Swiss cheese." She said, making him laugh. "How are you able to get this?"

"I asked for help."

"Do I want to know?"

"Later, right now, we have dinner to enjoy." He said as he led her to the large patio, which was set up to lead them to the pool, which had a glass top that supported a rounded table, covered over by a white table cloth, two chairs, a small candle holder with a candle lit in the middle of the table, surrounded by a wreath of lilies of the valley, and two silver food cover and plates at the end of the tables in front of the chairs, to empty glasses at the upper right corner of the plates, silverware on either side of the plates, and a man in a waiter's outfit waited on the side with a bucket of ice and a bottle of the evening's wine. He then let her sit first as he sat across from her, where he saw a look of utter disbelief. 'Looks like this was a bit over the top.' He thought. 'Then again, Crap Cook was the one who arranged this whole thing.'

The waiter opened the bottle, poured the champagne into the glasses, placed the bottle back into the bucket, and lifted the covers to reveal the meal of the evening: honey-glazed blackened salmon with a hint of citrus, over a bed of wild brown rice blended with settle spices that complimented the sweetness on the salmon, garnished by a single jasmine flower off to the corner of the plate. The waiter bid them a good evening and walked away with the covers in hand.

The two looked at each other, which she couldn't help but giggle. "Wow…" She said simply as she calmed down and looked up at Zoro. "Why do I get the feeling Sanji had a hand in this?"

"That's because he did." Zoro said, obviously going to bite down his urge to shoot down the blonde chef for this one night. "Normally I wouldn't go to him, but like I said earlier… I needed help for this one night."

Arabella blinked as she didn't really understand how this night was so important. "Is tonight something special?" She asked, which the other grinned.

"You'll see." He said as he thought, 'Well, of course she would ask that. We never really did anything to celebrate our certain times together after ten months.'

She smiled as she lifted her fork. "A surprise? You know me too well."

Zoro smiled, seeing that she's somewhat over her shock and is enjoying herself, much like he expected her to after being with her for as long as they have been together.

"You look really handsome tonight." She said as she took a bite of her salmon, knowing that this was indeed Sanji's cooking, there's no way anyone can try to copy his style and flavor combinations.

"And you look beautiful." He said as he looked from her face to the torso part of her dress. "That color green looks good on you."

She blushed at the comment and took a sip of champagne. "Thank you."

He did enjoy seeing her blush, he never thought he would get pleasure out of it, but here he was with the girl who can easily get rosy cheeks from a simple compliment. First time he noticed this he questioned Ran about it and he learned that, even though every guy who wants a girl like her would be the luckiest bastard in the whole damn world, don't even notice her because she's so plain and quiet and not very assertive enough for a guy to notice. Well, they're missing out, and he noticed her just as a wallflower.

"Hon?"

"Huh?"

"You were thinking about something." Arabella said with a smile. "What was it?"

"How sorry the bastards are for not giving you a second look."

"There were a couple, but it was at the time period where not every guy is honorable with a girl." She said.

"Yeah. I know what you mean." He said as the dessert plates came out. "You like mint chip, right?"

"Of course." She said as she saw the scoop of the said flavor ice cream with another garnish of mint leaves off to the side.

"That, I had to tell Crap Cook to keep it simple. He can make it, but keep it simple. It was just ice cream."

She had to laugh at that as she took a bite of her ice cream and nodded. "And of course he's done well once again."

"I'll give him that." Zoro said as he took a bite of his ice cream. "He does well in the kitchen."

She smiled as she looked at him. "Zoro, mind if I ask you something?"

"Shoot."

"Ran said this was your idea. Is that true?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

Zoro smiled as he started to chuckle. "Well… I noticed this on Monday, but we never once had one of those anniversary things."

She blinked as she started to giggle. "And, you were bothered by that?"

"No, no I wasn't. But I figured… Since we've been together for ten months, I would do something that I wouldn't normally do, but…" He started to say as he scratched the back of his neck. "Well… I wanted to do something extra special to make up all the other anniversaries that neither of us bothered to set up and plan."

"So… all this? For me?" Arabella asked, being shocked by this. "But… Wouldn't you be in debt with Nami and Sanji for… forever for doing this?"

"Yes." Zoro said with a heavy sigh. "But it's worth it." He smiled as he got up and extended his hand to her. "Consider this as all the things that you've done that you don't notice, but I'm grateful for."

She put her hand in his as she got up and he brought her close to a dance as soft music started to play.

"I was willing to push aside my pride and go through a week's worth of hell, so that all of this can happen. Everything was for you."

She felt her face becoming warm as she stared into his eyes, looked at his warrior-like face that has softened a bit for the occasion. "This is more than I expected."

"I know, but this was mostly the witch's and crap cook's idea. I would've done something less… grand for our anniversary. But I held my tongue and you enjoyed yourself, so it's all worth the trouble."

She smiled as she mentioned him down to kiss him both on the cheek and on the lips. "Then for our next anniversary, I should do something as well."

"Word of advice then. Don't go to Crap Cook for help or advice. He will bring the witch along with him."

She laughed as she nodded. "I will keep that in mind." She said as they stopped. "Penny for your thoughts?"

Zoro grinned as he lifted her chin up more and kissed her, which she returned before parting away. "I better get you back to your apartment."

She looked at her watch and saw that it was near eleven o'clock. "Oh jitterbug…"

He chuckled as he led them back to the elevator and headed down back to the lobby, where it was mostly deserted of any other life forms, and headed to the doors outside the hotel, where there was a limo waiting for them. "There's our way home." He said as he let her in after opening the door and entered as well.

"I had an amazing time."

"Good."

"But," she said as she wagged her finger at him, "If you try to pull something like that on me again, then I'm going to have to drag you to therapy."

"Don't worry about that. I'm not looking for them for advice ever again."

"Good." She said as she kissed him, which he ran his tongue on her bottom lip and had a passionate make out before the limo stopped at her apartment. She cleared her throat, that being the first time she'd passionately made out with her boyfriend.

"Now that's a good night kiss." He teased as she playfully punched his arm.

"You started it!"

"Yeah, but I half expected you to pull back and be all flustered like all the other times."

"You're lucky I love you!" She said as she resembled a cherry as he opened the door for her.

"I love you as well, Dear."

She smiled as she kissed him good night before closing the door and waving him off as the limo drove away.

"Someone had a good time!"

She turned to see her friends and roommates as she looked like a cherry again. "Y-Yeah… I had a really great-" She then realized something, "You knew this whole time!?"

"Of course. We had to be organized and all that." Ran said as she went over to wrap an arm around the red head. "Besides, it's more fun this way!"

Arabella sighed as the other girls asked what her anniversary was like and spent the night explaining it to her friends and then falling to a restful nights' sleep.

Zoro on the other hand…

"Go away!" He shouted as he barricaded his apartment door with his couch. "Can't you just fuck off until tomorrow!"

"It is tomorrow, dumbass!" Nami called out.

"Then come back later! I want to get some sleep!"

"I thought you said you had a great night!"

"I did until you ruined it! Now go the fuck away before the landlord busts my balls and your expenses!"

"Fine!" Nami called out as she stomped back to her apartment.

"Fucking thank you." He said to himself as he headed to his bedroom, leaving his couch so that no one else has the balls to try to force their way in. He entered his room to fall onto his bed, sighing as he looked up to see a picture of him and Arabella at one of those cheap but fun photo booths and had to smile of the sight of her laughing and turning a nice rustic dusty rose on her cheeks as he kissed her neck. "Yep… I'm one lucky bastard."


	17. Knowing How

**Title: Knowing How**

"_Oi, Ran."_

"_What up? You don't usually call me."_

"_Yeah… There's something I would like to ask of you."_

"_I'm listening…"_

"Ara, I'm teaching you how to be seme." Ran blurted out when she was eating her breakfast, making everyone including the said young woman to look at her.

"Pardon?"

"Zoro's out for the tournament thing for a week, right? So I'm teaching you to be on top." Ran said casually as if talking about the weather.

"What brought this up?" Arabella asked as she left her food untouched.

Ran shrugged. "I just figured you need to learn so you wouldn't be a uke all the time. Not that it's a bad thing, it's just something different."

Arabella giggled as she shook her head. "Ranni… I do believe all of us here can agree that I'm not cut out for the 'seme' position."

"So? It doesn't mean you can learn how."

Arabella shook her head. "How long have you known me?" She looked at her friend and roommate. "I didn't have sex with Zoro for two years after dating him and we haven't done it for a month now. And even before meeting him and moving here, I haven't really done anything crazy. I'm practically an iron wall when it comes to getting me to do anything out of my comfort zone."

"So?"

"So I can't be 'seme' until I'm good and ready." She said as she finished her breakfast. "I have to get going. I have documents to type up and a boss to keep happy."

"Aren't you just going to be there until the end of this week?" Kaytlyn asked.

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean I can't do a good job." She said as she grabbed her purse. "I'm lucky enough to even get this temp job." She put on her shoes. "I'll be a bit late tonight. I still got that project to work on. Mia, are you doing anything this evening?"

"No."

"Okay, I might call you for a ride if I miss the bus to get home." She said as she checked her phone. "Okay. I'm off! See you guys!"

"See ya!" The girls said as they looked at Ran.

"What's the deal?" Mia asked.

"Oh, Zoro asked me to teach her to be 'seme' while he's gone."

"Why?" Kaytlyn asked, a bit surprised to hear this. "Isn't he the all time seme in the relationship?"

"He is, but apparently he wants me to teach her to get her inner seme out and have sex with her dominating him." Ran said as she shrugged. "I don't know, maybe he realizes that she's just too uke and wants to see another side of her."

Mia scoffed. "As if having sex with her isn't her other side?"

"He didn't say he didn't like it that she's uke. He loves it, but he wants to see if she can get freaky."

"That's going to be difficult." Mia said. "Like she said, she's not easily influenced to do it when she's expected to do something. Hell! She didn't get her flower deblossomed until three months ago!"

"How much did they have sex since then?" Kaytlyn asked.

"About three from what I could tell after the first one." Ran said as she sighed. "I know that! But Zoro personally asked me. Me! On the phone. Asking me to teach her to be seme while he's gone."

"I think it will take more than a week." Mia said as she finished her breakfast. "Plus she has nothing but work and a couple night schools this week, how are you going to find the time to actually sit her down and tell her all the sex positions she should do if she was going to be on top?"

"I'm working on that." Ran said with a mischievous grin.

"No you can't cause an accident to her boss so he wouldn't work for the week, and you can't pull off as her being sick so she wouldn't go to school." Mia said, reading her friend easy.

"You got a better idea?"

"I might…" She said as she took out her phone and texted to the only person who would know about anything regarding the human body of both sexes. "Does Zoro mind if any of the guys know of this?"

"He will mind if Sanji knows." Ran said. "I still remember that one time he heard about Arie losing her virginity."

Kaytlyn sighed. "I remember… I practically had to sweet talk my way so he wouldn't barge up the apartment and try to beat Zoro up."

Mia and Ran scoffed when Ran spoke. "Those guys are evenly matched. They don't beat one person up, they beat themselves up."

"But we definitely have to keep that from his knowledge." Mia said. "I don't know much about him, but if he knew that this was Zoro's idea, then he would probably use that against him just to start a fight."

The other two nodded in agreement, one a bit disappointed of the fact while the other didn't seem to really care but knew the fact to be true all the same.

"Same goes for Luffy, he doesn't keep secrets well." Mia added, which Ran flipped her off. "It's true."

"So when she gets home at night?" Ran asked. "I know some sites that we can tie her down on and let her watch."

"She has seen porn before, so I wouldn't be surprised that she would sit through the whole thing, tied down or not." Mia said. "But can we really do that for a whole week?"

"We can have Law give her a few pointers… You know, for personal experiences…" Ran said as she looked at Mia, who simply glared at her. "I know you did it at least five times."

"I was pissed off those times."

"Still counts."

"Fuck your couch."

"I did. With Luffy."

"TMI."

"Do we have to get a new couch for hearing that?" Kaytlyn said as Ran slammed her hand on the table.

"We're getting off subject!" Ran called out. "Point is that we have to at least get her to do one seme thing to him and we will win the week's worth of hard work!"

Mia shook her head as she got a response from Law, saying that he will help a little, but he won't take up his time to go over everything, just the safety aspects of a woman taking charge in the bed environment.

Late that night, Arabella made it to the bus to go home as she got a text message from Zoro, asking if she was doing alright. She responded that she was fine and asked him the same question, which was responded that the first day of the tournament was okay but hoped for more of a challenge. She responded that it was just the first day and will get harder the more the days go on, and that she misses him but glad to know things are okay. He replied that he missed her too and to not get into too much trouble, which she responded that she doesn't look for trouble anyway.

After she responded, she pulled the cord to be let off and walked to the apartment as she went up to the door and entered, only to see the girls at the couch, seeming to wait for her.

"I didn't know it was movie night tonight." She said, knowing that they have a movie night sometime during the month.

"It's not really a movie night." Ran said as she mentioned her over, which she obediently did and sat down. "It's week-long porn night from here on out."

"Huh?"

"You're going to observe how the woman takes charge of her man."

"The seme thing still?" She asked as she sighed in defeat and watched the three porn clips, her face turning red from them.

"So?" Ran asked as she looked to see the red head look at her.

"That was… interesting…" She said as she wasn't sure what else to call what she saw.

"Do you see yourself doing any of those things to Zoro?"

"… Kinda… But I don't think I'm able to go through with it…"

"Sure you can!"

"I need to get to sleep." She said as she got up. "I got an early shift tomorrow and I'm almost done with one project in my one class that I can get done tomorrow night." She bid them good night and went into her shared room to quickly change, set her alarm, and went to sleep.

The other three were silent after bidding her good night and the two girls looked at Ran.

"She can't know about it, right?" Mia asked.

"That's right. Zoro doesn't want her to know that this was his idea."

"Why?" Kaytlyn asked.

Ran shrugged. "Who the fuck knows why?"

This continued to go on for three days when Zoro called Ran about how it was going.

"Hard to say whether she's thinking about it or trying to not think about it." Ran said. "You know how quiet she is."

"I know." He said as he sighed. "I kinda figured it was a bit much to ask, but I figured if anyone was going to help her, it's you."

Ran laughed at this. "You think that I can get her to be a freaky, sexy minx by the time you get back? You're dreaming!"

"I didn't expect anything, but it would be nice for her to take charge for once."

"You two had sex three times! The rest of us did so much more than you two!"

"I know… I'm just not really high on the sexual thing, and I don't believe she is either."

"Nope, she's fucking loyal to you and no other guy. And you treat her right."

"Well, even if she doesn't show that she's going to be seme, then she probably will later on. This would only get her some ideas at least."

"Fuck you, Zoro. I'm forcing Arie to watch porn so you can have your freaky fantasy of being uke for once after three times being seme."

"Nice talking to you to." He said as he hung up on her and sighed. "I tried getting her to at least take the lead the first time we did it, then again the second time, and I was close to get her to take the lead the third time." He sighed. "She just needs to be confident enough to take the lead." He grinned. "She'll get there…"

Back with Arabella, she groaned as she finished one document but kept thinking about the porn she watched for the past half week and thinking about doing those things with Zoro, but her stomach did flips when she tried to imagine if she even has the confidence to do it, which ultimately the answer would be 'no way'.

She had a half day at work that day and Kaytlyn wanted to spend a couple hours with her to shop before she had to go to work and she would go to school.

"I have to pick up something in Shadedows." Kaytlyn said as they entered the mall and headed straight to the said shop, which looked like a dark alley with many oddity items at the front, including some gag, penis and boobies' items for those who have that kind of humor. And in farther back there are some whips, hand cuffs, and other sex toys that bold parents with kids usually don't venture when in the store. They were at the back where Kaytlyn was looking for a corset, and seemed to be in a debate of what kind she wants and still make her man drool more than usual. "What do you think?" Kaytlyn asked as she took two possibilities up to her.

She looked to see a royal blue corsets with black, satin-looking ribbons at the front while there was black, French Victorian style lace at the sides. The other was a spicy, hot red corsets with similar black ribbon and lace, but the front breast cut was more of a plunge than the royal blue. Both look really great, but she was the wrong person to ask such intimate possibility questions, especially since the other was looking for confirmation for what she would wear for a certain night of teasing, followed by passionate love making.

"Have you purchased a corset before?" She asked.

"Yeah, but that one is getting old and tearing apart." Kaytlyn said.

"Well… I know Sanji's favorite color is a dark shade of blue, but the red one is definitely inviting some… thing…" She said as she didn't know what else to say without making it sound strange. 'I'm not good at this sexy stuff at all…'

"Yeah… If only I could combine these two then it would be so perfect…" Kaytlyn said as she looked at the corset's again. "I love the dark blue because it does remind me of the ocean. And Sanji loves the ocean. But the red just screams of being a tease factor…"

"Well… If you go with the blue, you can have more fun with the teasing that he wouldn't take it off right away, but would work it up to it." She said, blushing at what she said. "If you go with red… I don't know."

"I'm going with blue then." Kaytlyn said as she put away the red corsets. "I'm so glad I brought you along."

"You're welcome…" She said as she looked to see a corset that was light, sky blue with white ribbons at the sides, and white lace along the top, bust part and goes out in a short skirt style. And ironically is called an 'angel' corsets design. But she turned away and followed the other to the cashier and headed out of the store to get back to Kaytlyn's truck and then dropped her off to school while she drove on to work.

As she walked to her class, she thought about the store, but then shook her head. 'No! You can't even afford some of the things in there if you don't know how to work with them!' She then sighed. 'Well… I guess I can at least try on that corsets, just to get it over the fact that I can't really be sexy and prove that I can't wear a corsets.' She nodded. 'That's what I'll do.'

It was the day before Zoro comes back from the tournament, and Arabella finally has the day off and a check from her payday that she was going to put into the bank and then she was going to head to the mall to go to that store and put her short plan to work.

She found the corsets she was looking at, as well as a couple others and went into the dressing room to try them on, facing away from the mirror.

"Huh… Not a bad fit actually. But I bet I look like a bloated walrus in a ballerina's costume." She turned and her eyes nearly fell out of their sockets. "Oh… gingersnaps…" She looked… sexy in a clean way. The lace skirt fell to her mid thigh, which normally she wasn't comfortable with, but this time it was different. The ribbons up the sides started from the top then work its way to the bottom where her hips are, giving that cute side detail, and the lace at the bust top of the corsets looked beautiful as it both settles and brings attention to her breasts, which were covered with the materials. She looked at the price tag and smiled to see that it was marked down to sale's price, took it off, got back to her outing attire and was going to head to the cashier when she saw a book titled 'sex bible'. She sighed as she figured she'd leaf through and found something that she was able to do, which she blushed as she sighed and looked up at nothing in particular. "Higher power help me." She whispered as she took the book, and headed to the cashier, who luckily it was a female who gave her a knowing look and a 'good luck, chicky' and headed out, a bit red faced but luckily no one really pays attention in the mall.

She got a few other things and put her first purchases into a different bag and headed back to the apartment, which everyone was gone and she was free to put her stuff away under the bed, which had nothing to begin with.

"Arie!"

She nearly jumped out of her skin when she heard her name called and rushed out to see that it was Ran, taking her work pants off. "Hey Ran, how was work?"

"Sacrificed a hundred hummingbirds to create the most wonderful smoothie drink in everyone's lives."

"So it went okay at the smoothie place." She said as she headed over to the kitchen. "Want anything?"

"I want a sacrificial goat and a young shota boy to serve me."

"I can't really get that goat, but I can call up Luffy, dress him up and have him serve you."

Ran laughed as she waved her hand. "So tempting, but I would like a soda."

"Coming right up." She said as she grabbed a soda and brought it to her.

"How was your day off?"

"Well, I dropped off that check in the bank and went to the mall to kill time."

"Kaytlyn went to the mall the other day and said that you helped her pick out a corset." Ran said with a grin. "Don't make it out like you're there just to kill time."

She knew she couldn't hide things from Ran and told her to wait and went to the room to put on the corsets and walked out, blushing horribly. "Well?"

Ran smiled as she bobbed her head. "She's sexy and now she knows it!"

"Ran…" She whined.

"It looks adorable on you! And about damn time you got something to show off what your momma gave you!" Ran said as she chuckled. "Man… Zoro would have to be crazy not to go down on his knees and start praying."

"He doesn't pray… Nor would he go down on his knees. You know that."

"He will once he sees you." She said as she grinned.

Arabella shook her head and went back to the room to change back when the other called her back. "What's up?"

"I want to take a picture to send to Zoro."

"No!"

Ran lifted her brow when she had a Chester cat grin. "Oh… I see… Taking the lead here, huh?"

"It's nothing like that, I just want to surprise him when he comes back from the tournament tomorrow."

"Oh, he'll be surprised alright." Ran said as she tried to look behind her. "So… what else have you got?"

The next day arrived and Zoro got off the bus along with a few others that were in the tournament with him, holding the trophy before handing it off to someone else as they all headed to the gym.

"Hey man! Why don't you join us? We're going to the bar to celebrate the victory!"

"Sorry, but I promised my girl that I hang out with her."

"Man, come on! Just one night!"

"Another time. Right now I just want to go home and hang out with my girl." He said as the guys let him go and he headed to his apartment building, texting to Arabella along the way to let her know that he was back and heading home. The response he got was that she was already there and making something for him. "I'm not married but it feels like it." He said to himself as he only took one wrong turn to get to his apartment.

When he got to his apartment, he could smell the fish and vegetable stir fry in the air as he took off his shoes and placed his stuff down in their respectable places. "I'm home!" He said as she greeted him and they had dinner.

"What have you been up to while I was away?" Zoro asked as she told him about what Ran has been doing, which he kinda felt bad, but not so much so as she didn't seem troubled or fazed by it, if not amazed by just how many ways sex can be performed for one woman to her guy. Once dinner was done, she told him to wash up while she got the dishes. He didn't complain as he did just that.

When he was done he only had a towel wrapped around him as he got out. He'd done this before with her around, so he didn't have a problem walking to his room to grab something to wear. What he didn't realize was that as he entered his room, the light scent of vanilla was present in the room and his bed was well made, assuming his sort-of-unofficial-official wife was in his room as the door closed behind him and hands lightly grabbed his wrists. "Ara?" He voiced as he heard her hum out an affirmative. "What are you doing?"

"Trying something out…" Said as she brought the captured wrists back, then using a black, satin ribbon to tie them together.

"Bondage? Don't we have to come up with a safe word?" He teased, grinning as he wondered what she had in mind.

"Only your hands, Hon."

"Still counts." He said as he felt her kiss in-between his shoulder blades.

"Walk towards the bed." She said as he did until he was at the foot of his bed. "Close your eyes and turn around."

He did that as she more or less pushed him on the bed, where she straddled his hips and started to slowly, but passionately kiss him, slipping her tongue in as she massaged his shoulders before moving down to his chest, earning a hum of pleasure. She parted from the kiss, earning a groan of disapproval, making her giggle as she mentioned him to open his eyes.

He did, and had to stare when she was wearing a corsets, and nothing much else.

"What do you think?"

He stared as he tried to touch her, only to realize that he was still tied up. "You look amazing. Very you, but… more…"

She giggled as she ran her fingers through his hair. "That's good. Are you comfortable? You're arms not hurting you are they?"

He chuckled as he shook his head. "Pain's practically my middle name. But no, I'm not the least uncomfortable."

Arabella smiled as she moved her hips so that she was over his groin where she can feel how hard he was getting under the towel, but she was going to attempt to be in control here. "It looks like you had a rough tournament. You don't look very relaxed." She said as she massaged his shoulders, leaning forward to kiss the rare sensitive spots on his neck, making him try to bite back a moan. She then rocked her hips a bit, making him groan as she moved her hands to his nipples, pinching them as she kissed him deeply, doing the tongue dance before she won it as he lifted his hips to let her know what he wants, parting away from the kiss, a small saliva line connecting them for a moment.

"I know what you want, Hon. But you have to wait a bit." She said, making him groan out which made her smile. 'This is kinda fun.' She thought as she moved her right hand to his side, and scratched lightly, making him shiver. 'He gets turned on by even the slightest amount of pain.' She brought her hand back up, dug her short nails in a little and slowly brought it down, making his head go back and moaning.

She brought her head down to the left nipple and slightly bite down, feeling the hardness in his groin area, which she moved her hips in a rocking motion, feeling herself getting that tight feeling in her stomach.

"Fuck…" Zoro groaned out.

'He's getting close.' She thought as she slid back so that she was in-between his legs, removing the towel and seeing the large and hardened member, throbbing for attention. She leaned down and licked the tip, making the other shiver.

"T… That's a first…" Zoro breathed as she giggled before he felt her engulf him. He looked down to see her bob her head up and down, not fully engulfing him, but enough to drive him close to the edge. And what she couldn't reach when bringing her head down, she used her hand to massage the rest of his member as well as using her other hand to dig her nails in slightly in his inner thigh, scratching a bit as he moaned out in bliss and pleasure. But then those motions stopped as he looked again to see her digging through his dresser drawer to pick up a condom and some lube.

"Enjoying yourself so far?" She said as she took the corner of the condom packet to her teeth, opening it with a quick flick of her wrist.

He chuckled as he was. "Enough to not mind you calling the shots." He said as she saw him put the condom on, massaging his sacks with the other, making him moan, before he felt her lather his covered member with lube.

Once she was sure that he was lathered up, she moved up so that she was above him, her core entrance on top of the tip, shivering from the lube's warming formula, as she slowly moved down onto him, both groaning before she was fully on top of him and inside of her, panting as if she ran a certain distance before looking down to see his one emerald eye staring back at her, panting like she was, a thin sheet of sweat on him that made him shine. Once she felt fully adjusted to him, she rocked her hips, moving slightly at different angles until she felt the one spot that knocked the wind out of her. Then she moved a bit faster, with Zoro helping a bit with moving his hips up, making skin slap onto skin before he didn't take it anymore and he moaned out her name as he released. She loved the look he had when he hit his climax as she moved a bit more before she felt her own release and then went limp, but she moved to his left side, sliding out as she did.

For a moment they took a moment to breathe before Zoro chuckled.

"What?" Arabella asked.

"You…" He started to say as he turned his head to look at her. "You really can kick my ass."

She playfully hit him as she mentioned him to turn to the side. "Can't have you sleep bounding like this." She said as she did a simple tug of the black ribbon, releasing his hands.

"Thanks." He said as he rubbed his wrists. "Nearly killed me."

"You should've said something!"

He chuckled. "I meant that it nearly killed me not touching you that whole time. At least you didn't blind fold me. I would've gone crazy if you'd done that." He said as he groan while getting up, taking the condom off, and placed it in the trash bin near his bed.

"I missed it too." She said. "I like it when you touch me."

He looked over as he smiled. "Come here," He said as she crawled towards him and he embraced her. "You did great."

She buried her face on his chest. "Thanks…" She said as her face was lifted up to see him.

"You know that I don't like it when you hide your face from me." Zoro said with a grin as she giggled and they cuddled up to a restful night's sleep. Sometime later, his cell buzzed and he was awake enough to look to see it was a text from Ran.

'I'm guessing she did real good?'

He looked at Arabella, who was still asleep, and quickly texted back saying that it was very good and not text him until she's on her way back to her apartment.

Back in the apartment, Ran closed her cell as she looked at the other girls. "Our sweet Mamma-san is finally grown up." She said as she faked cried. "Oh, what will we do?"

Mia rolled her eyes as she looked at her laptop to work on a paper for her class.

"I'm glad she's able to do it." Kaytlyn said. "Do you think Zoro will let her do that again?"

Ran scoffed. "Hell, yeah! You saw what she wore. And with our help, she will own his ass in bed every time." She said with a laugh while the other two shrugged as they continued to do what they were doing.


	18. Possession

**Title: Possession **

It was about two weeks after the time the Great War between the Marines up at Marine Ford and the Whitebeard pirates plus allies had ended when I was making a delivery. It wasn't my first delivery or anything special like that.

Anyway, it was on this particular day that I was wheel-barreling this huge barrel of ale; vintage brand, the year on it is a good one, and the person I'm delivering it to isn't the type of person to have visitors in his unique estate. Let's put it this way… He lives in an abandoned castle, surrounding in nothing but forests for miles away from the nearest ocean port, and the first time I made this delivery, I was attacked by these giant monkey warriors. Man that's a day that took a good chuck of my life out.

You're probably wondering who I am by now, huh? No? Well, I wouldn't blame you, I'm pretty plain. But if anyone knew that I was entrusted by the Marines of this particular location, swordsmen young and old will kill to get the information I have just to face this one man.

Oh? Do you know him? I wouldn't be surprised if you did though, he's quite famous.

Well, I might as well introduce myself as I'm nearing the castle. I'm Willins Arabella, you can call me Ara for short. Call me Bella and don't expect me to answer you back. I'm a delivery girl, plain and simple. Well… I guess simple isn't the best way to describe my current delivery.

It's quite a long story, but in a nutshell, a big shot Marine liked how I deliver and suggested that I should do deliveries to even the most dangerous sort of people. I'm not the only one doing deliveries though, but I'm the main person doing the actual delivering. I'm with a group of friends and, under the watchful eye of the Marines in our funding and customer contacts, which is usually on our funding, not really keeping an eye on us in our routes. And well, here I am, delivering expensive and best kind of ale money can buy, and the one who's expecting it is none other than-

A dagger came out of nowhere and nearly hit me, but thankfully it missed by an inch and lodged itself in the bark of a tree just behind me.

Oh… Right… I did mention about giant warrior monkies earlier, didn't I? And soon enough a scared baboon face appeared behind one of the trees, doing that monkey laugh.

"That's not funny!" I said as pushed the wheel-barrel. "Excuse me…" I continued onward to the front steps of the castle, the worst part of this delivery. "Please don't tell me he's not home again…" This isn't the first time this happened. I brought out my mini denden and started to call up the girls when I heard some sword clashing, and looked over in time to see two swordsmen going at it, one who is my customer and another that I have to be living under a rock not to know.

Yep, if you haven't guessed who my customer is, then you're going to know now. My customer is none other than Hawkeye Mihawk, the world's greatest swordsman known for the pass two generations. He's not that old, somewhere in his mid to late thirties, early forties at best and still unmatched. Well, at least that's what I heard until I saw him sparing with none other than Roronoa Zoro, first mate of the currently MIA Strawhat Pirates, and one of the Supernovas, and he was keeping up with Mihawk.

Now, I'm not an expert when it comes to Mihawk and what he does when he's home, but I would have to be blind, deaf, and really stupid to try to go up or call out my presence. After all, I once have to wait a month in this creepy place before he came home to pay me, what's another half hour or so watching an intense spar match, or is it an actual fight?... it was truly hard to tell.

Well… you're probably wondering why the hell I would stick around while two men are fighting, or why I even ended up being a delivery girl to one of the Pirate Warlords. It's quite simple really…

I didn't really have a choice.

With debts to pay and in need of work and starving for a reputation, when the Marine hotshot gave us, me and my small crew of three close girlfriends, this opportunity about a year and a half ago, we didn't really like the idea of being owned by the Marines, but we weren't getting any serious offers from anywhere else and we really needed the money for serious updates and repairs to our now functional and wonderful delivery subship. Yes, a cross between a submarine and a ship, it's a small one but still impressive.

But, anyway, like I have mentioned earlier, I'm part of a small delivery crew that consists of only four girls, but I do most of the face to face deliveries. Which can lead to strange situations such as this as Mihawk managed to knock Zoro onto his back as Zoro was panting, hard, as if he was partially in pain and from such an intense match.

"Take a breather, Roronoa…" Mihawk said as his gold eyes landed onto my mostly green and hazel eyes. "Ah, is it that time again?"

"Ha?" Zoro said as he lifted his head to see me.

"Oh, uh, yes, Mihawk-san…"

"Just as quiet as always…" Mihawk said as he went over to get the barrel, which of course he can easily lift it up with just one hand while the other was holding that giant sword he has. "Did you wait long?"

"Oh, no, I just arrived." I said, moving a strand of my dark red hair behind my ear. "The payment as usual." I said as he nodded, since we've done this before after my second visit here.

"Yes, please come in."

"Hororororo! And who's this?" Said a girl's voice above me.

"Wha! Where'd you come from!?" I said, not expecting to see a pink haired girl floating above me surrounded by ghosts.

"Be useful and help Roronoa to his room."

"I can get there myself." Zoro said as he was on the steps just behind us, and looked at me. "Who's she?"

"You should introduce yourself, Roronoa." Mihawk said.

"That's quite alright, Mihawk-san." I said as I look to see Zoro and bowed. "I'm Willins Arabella. I'm first mate of a delivery crew, and we're currently owned by the Marines, but we specialize in doing special deliveries to Pirate Warlords such as Mihawk-san."

"There's such a thing?" He asked, raising a bleeding brow.

"We're fairly new…" I said as Mihawk opened the door.

"Well don't stay out in the cold, come inside and I'll repay you for your troubles."

We all entered as I followed Mihawk to the study, where I sat down on one of the plush chairs in front of the fireplaces and waited for him, bringing two glasses of wine.

Now, don't give me that strange look, this how it is whenever I deliver his ale. I bring the delivery, without any damage or a drop missing as usual, he would treat me to one of his finer wines that he doesn't enjoy alone, we chat a bit, and depending on the time of day I arrived, which at this point it's nearly dark… Darker than usual around this area, which means I will be spending the night here and leave with my payment first thing in the morning after breakfast.

"How are your deliveries going along? I heard you've finally got the Red Pirates in your list of customers."

"It was dumb luck really…" I said. "We were on our route back to the port to pick up your ale when the Marines intercepted our denden and told us to deliver a message, and as payment, they gave us an update on this sonar thing their scientists have been working on. Don't know why we need it though… It's not like we're part-time treasure hunters…"

"They want to test it out on your sub, to be sure it can be used for future use. It's not that difficult to see." Mihawk said bluntly.

I sighed, since it was something that me and my crew have figured. But we couldn't really leave the Marines now, because even though we paid our debts and got our small business going, we now owe the Marines a debt which came with the contract we all signed for at least five years service to them. We survived one so far before being given to the lions such as Mihawk.

And to be honest, besides meeting up with the Red Pirates, Mihawk is the only one out of all the warlords that we have to deliver. And I hope that those two are the only ones who would take any interest in our services. I rather not get involved with the others, such as that Flamingo guy or whatever he's called, he scared me with that puppetering ability he has.

Oh, I had a chance to see that first hand when I was making a side delivery when I was at one of the bases that the warlords were having one of those meetings. And quite frankly, I don't want to be anywhere near that Moria guy either, he just plains scares me. But that small delivery run was what got attention of Mihawk.

Although, I believe he didn't believe we had a chance when he made his order. I believe he expected us to fail. But not fully picking up on that at the time, I filled in the order and told him that he can pay when I bring it to him, which made everyone in the meeting room laughed while the Marines there seemed to be thinking that I was crazy.

That first delivery nearly killed me with those baboons. I think I lost fifteen years off my life from that as I ran, and I was delivering the first barrel of ale, before a rock busted the wheel of the wheel barrel and that caused me to have a good size bruise on my abdomen for a good few weeks and nearly broke the barrel of ale. Now, I'm not a strong person, so lifting the barrel and run with it was not a plan of action I was able to accomplish. Rolling the barrel was, however, a high possibility. Thing is, there's a high chance that I'll hit another rock and completely bust the barrel and that will be the end of it, but I was going to take that risk as I rolled that barrel and ran for my life. Not as easy as it sounds as I was sure those monkies were just enjoying scaring the life out of me.

I then tripped, the barrel going ahead of me, which was stopped by a boot, and the monkies stopped chasing me, as if fearing the very man that owned this area.

"Impressive…" Was the only thing he said as I was on the ground, covered in sweat and dirt, panting the dust up from my heavy breathing, and feeling my scared and racing heart pounding so hard in my chest that I feared it was trying to burst out. "I'd expected to find this somewhere in the forest without it's handler. You must be very desperate."

Was I insulted? Maybe. Was I going to make a big deal out of it? Two things why I wouldn't: first off, he's a Pirate Warlord, there's no way to complain about it, and second, I was too scared and tired at that point and if his presence alone stopped those monster monkies to stop chasing me, then I'm not even going to complain about how rude he was being to a scared girl.

"Can you get up on your own?" He said, sounding bored. "I rather like to get home and have you leave as soon as you've been paid."

I did try to get up at that point. I was trembling so bad that I think I upset my insides, as I felt so sick that I wanted to puke. I got up to as far as in a sitting position before carefully trying to get my legs to move underneath me to stand, only to fall to the side. The tears came down at that point as I tried to get up again, only to see a hand in my wet blurry vision. I didn't question it as I placed my hand over that and was helped up to my feet and he didn't move until I took the first few steps without falling before he let his hand drop and I followed him as he held the barrel as it didn't weigh nothing. And, admittedly, I did puke at this point, but managed to compose myself and kept on following him, embarrassed yes, but determined to get paid and not deal with this anymore.

Once we got to the castle, I didn't care that it looked like something from a cheesy horror story, I followed him to as far as the front doors and waited out at the stone landing in front of the door, which he opened and looked back to me.

"Not coming in?"

"That's not how it works…" I said, still feeling scared and embarrassed to the point of being ill.

"I insist. You don't look well." He said as he kept the door open as he entered.

I took up the offer and felt very much at ease as I waited.

"Well, come along." He called from the doorway of some other room. "I hate to wait, lady or not."

I didn't know what to think of this arrangement as I cautiously went into the room he went in, where there were two plush chairs in front of a burning fireplace, and a small table in between said chairs.

"Sit down and make yourself comfortable." He said, in the same bored, uninterested tone, but I followed direction and sat down, finding that the chair was the safest place on this whole area. "Here, it helps with the nerves you have now." He handed me a glass of wine, the first of how we end the delivery, and took it, taking a careful sip.

"Thank you, Mihawk-sama…" I said as I did start feeling better as my body then started to relax. And when you're scared out of your mind like that, I don't care if he handed me arsenic, I would be so happy to have something in my system.

Now, back to the present situation, that pink haired girl came in, and Mihawk simply said that she's a devil fruit user and to not pay her any mind, in which she really didn't like to hear as she made a string of complaints.

I got up when I finished my wine and excused myself to call the girls, just to let them know I'm alive and if I should head on back.

"Just stay there for the night, Captian's orders!" Called out my captain and best friend of the crew. "News said it's gonna storm, and we're fucked if something happens to you."

I looked out at the window to see that the clouds do look rather ugly and it seems like I'm going to stay the night until it passes in the morning. I told my customer and host this and he told me that the usual room is available and I made my way there when he mentioned about coming down for dinner in an hour, which I agreed to go to and made my way to the room.

Okay, I know you're all thinking this isn't what Mihawk would do, or this is all a bunch of b.s. Well, there's not much either of us could do. Mihawk does show himself as uncaring at times, but he isn't heartless and sometimes likes to chat a bit when there's someone, like me, who won't make a political or personal fuss about it. And to be honest, unless you've been at his estate, you don't know what trouble you'll get yourself into if you even try to wander around at night or in a storm.

So, I headed up to the room I remember going to in my second visit here. That time it was a bad storm and I think I gained just a couple points of respect from Mihawk on that run, but I did get sick in which he did make fun of me.

"If idiots don't catch colds, then you should've been smart enough to avoid it."

Yep… that's his way of teasing me that time. But he did give me some soup before I left the next morning.

"Now get out before you infest my home."

And I parted away from my second trip with that.

I entered the room, and by that point it started to rain outside. The room itself was rather plain and spacious, but it was alright for a one night guest like me. I was relaxing when the door opened and in walked in Zoro, who looked confused for a moment.

"The hell are you doing here? Aren't delivery people suppose to leave after they deliver?" He asked, he bandages were shown around his arms and a bandage on his upper right of his forehead.

"Well, yes… Normal ones do, but as you can see, I deliver to some special customers." I said. "And on days like this when there's a storm on the way, I'm allowed to stay at least one night or until the storm passes."

"Okay…" He said as he stood there looking at me.

"Can… I help you?"

"There you are!" Said Perona, the ghost devil fruit user. "You're in the wrong room! You pervert!"

"Oi! I'm not a pervert!" Zoro called at the other. "And what about you? Floating around from place to place?"

"WHA!? Don't put me in that category! I'm not into that!"

Ever heard of the saying? Something about an elephant in a crowded room? That's what it seems like right now. They bicker and argue in front of me while I stood there. Yeah… I'm that plain that I become pretty invisible. Well, that was fine by me as I headed over to the bed and lied down to take a bit of a nap. Oh, I'm a pretty light sleeper, but I feel comfortable with some kind of noise, and at this point, I fell asleep by the sound of those two arguing.

"Oi! Oi! Wake up delivery girl!"

I groaned at someone practically shouting at me and shaking me. Oh yeah, I may be a light sleeper, but when I'm really tired, I'm out. It took me a while to get my head back in order as I saw green eyes staring down at me.

"Oi! Delivery girl, get up! Dinner's ready."

"My name's Arabella…" I said and added. "Roronoa-san."

"Oi, it's Zoro, none of that formal shit." He said as he sighed. "Okay, we're even with the naming thing. Now come on. Mihawk told me to come get you."

"Oh, okay…" I said as I got off the bed and headed over to the dining area, in which Zoro followed me to the room with the long table that was in need of polishing at the other half, but there was a few bowls out for dinner.

Normally, Mihawk wouldn't cook for anyone but himself, but since I started delivering to his estate and when I had to stay for a night, he would make dinner. It's nothing fancy, but it was a nice gesture after delivering and kinda getting the cold shoulder for it.

Tonight's meal was simple soup, something that's fine by me because, after being in a deep sleep, you don't get hungry right away, and since it's late something light like soup is a good meal before bed.

"It's about time!" Perona said. "I knew I should've gone with you! You're so hopeless!" She whined as she lifted her spoon. "And the soup's gone cold!"

"You were complaining about it earlier! And I wasn't gone that long!"

"Both of you be quiet and sit down. Miss Willins, sit here. It'll be nice to have a serious conversation." Mihawk said, pointing out a spot near him. "Let those two bicker."

"You're so mean!" Perona whined. "If you want a private dinner date with your girlfriend, just say so!"

"How childish…" Mihawk said. "She's old enough to be my daughter."

"So!? There are old guys twice your age that have wives younger than her!"

"And you think I'm like them?" Mihawk said dully. "Eat your soup or go hungry." This made the other girl whine more.

Yeah, the soup is very luke warm, but that's fine, I was never really picky about food. I took a sip of it and enjoyed the flavor of it. "Tastes fine to me." I said offhandedly as Mihawk started to ask some simple questions while the other girl made pouting noises that are fit for a pampered toddler.

After that it was off to bed and the next morning the storm passed and I left with a few things to bring back to the girls, a few stuffed rolls of some sort usually, and parted ways with a simple 'later and thanks for your business as usual'.

Two months passed and Mihawk put in an order of his usual ale, plus medical supplies that he was running low on, and we made our way over to the island where he inhabits.

"You seem happy." Asked one of my friends, Kaytlyn. She's a great singer, but she does have a gun for the guys that tried to get "too friendly" with her. Thus gives her the nickname "Seiren Trigger" for the guys that were, literally, shot down. Didn't kill anyone though, which is a double blade blessing at best.

"Well, I don't mind going over to Hawkeye-san's residence. He's not a scary guy once you get to know him."

"She wants to jump on Zoro." Said another girl's voice, the captain of our little crew of four, Ramen.

"No I don't!" I said as she chuckled.

"You're turning red! Quit denying it!" She said, laughing a bit at my expense.

Don't let her teasing give you the wrong impression. When we're traveling she's like this, everywhere else she's the laid back kind of young woman who has the 'devil may care' attitude. Unless you piss her off, in which you don't want to know. She's also the tallest among us girls and the only one with a darker shade of skin tone and light brown hair that's up in a bun. She also wears shades that hide the one filmed over brown eye that gives it a nice touch when she goes into her 'do you really want to start something with me, dumbass' before getting into a fight.

"You have been doing most of the receiving calls since the last time you were there." Kaytlyn said with a knowing smile of her own, a twinkle can be seen in her blue eyes as she moved a strand of her black hair behind her ear.

I sighed as the two chuckled. "I may have a small crush on him, but I'm not the only one who likes someone from the Strawhats…" I gave them a pointed look as I said this. "Like… a certain rubber captain…" I looked at Ramen, who grinned, not being affected by this. "And a certain pirate chef?" I look to Kaytlyn, who just giggled.

"You know we're just giving you a hard time!" Kaytlyn said as she patted my shoulder.

"Yeah, the only odd one out of us is Mia and her crushing on Law, doctor and captain of the Heart Pirates." Ramen said. "I wouldn't be surprised if he'll end up becoming a warlord soon enough. And if that were to happen, you're job as being the one to physically hand over the stuff will be taken over by our shipwright."

"We're here! Ara! Get moving!" Called out the intercom of our said person we were discussing.

"Right." I said as I got up and got ready to head out.

I had to go to where the shipwright was to use the elevator to get me up to exit out of the subship. "Hey Mia." I greeted her as she was putting her silver-white hair up in a high ponytail, her different shade of blue eyes looked at me with a certain tired look.

"That's the fifth time you said 'hi' to me. Stop that!"

"S-Sorry!" I said as I got the wheel barrel, which has the ale and medical supplies requested and used it to go up.

Mia isn't a mean person, in fact she's really nice once she warms up to you. But like most of us, she gets a bit tired about something, and this time it's me saying hi to her even though we've spent most of our time together in a subship. Well, I haven't seen her in a certain amount of hours, so of course I would be saying hi to her unnessisarily.

Well, anyway, I arrived at the residence once more, only for Zoro to come out from the forest and nearly stopped my heart from beating.

He and one of the warrior monkies were fighting and nearly rammed into me, but he shoved me out of the way and owned that monkey.

I looked to make sure the wheel barrel was undamaged and the items are as well before sighing in relief and got up.

"Huh? You again?" He asked with a raised brow.

"Hello to you as well, Zoro-san." I said as I got up and went over to my wheel barrel. "Training?"

"…Yeah…" Zoro said with a raised brow, which there seems to be a cut of some sort by the trail of blood that's right there. "Ara… right?"

"That's my nickname." I said with a bit of a smile.

"Okay… Weren't you here not long ago?"

"Mihawk placed an order a week ago, I'm simply doing my job." I said as I wheeled the thing onward. "Mind joining, or are you in the middle of something?"

"Nah, this guy is tapping out." He said as we walked away from the knocked out monkey.

We were walking in silence when I noticed his bandages, which reminded me of a mummy than an actual person. 'I can guess why he ordered extra bandages.' I thought looking at the medical supply box that was bigger than normal, due to the extra gauze.

"Oi." He said, snapping me out of my thoughts. "Do you deliver to anyone who asks?"

"Well… not everyone…" I said. "We can't serve any pirates, the warlords being the exception, and only the individual; we can't deliver the items with their crew or allies associated with them."

"Right, Marine bound."

"Like a choke hold." I said. "I don't mind them, since what they do is a good thing for most, but they can be close minded to other pirate groups such as yours and Red pirates."

He chuckled. "Should you really be talking to me?"

"I'm not wired if that's what you're worried." I said. "They're just paranoid about the subship we have."

"Right…" He said as there was a pausing silence for a moment before he spoke once more. "Who else do you report to for deliveries?"

"So far? Well… Mihawk-san and Shanks-san are the only warlords that are on the customers list. The other warlords don't bother. And most of the marine bases on East Blue, a couple in North, and only one for the Main Base."

"The Main Base?"

"Yeah… But I've only been there once." I said. "And no, I can't tell you anything about it."

"I wasn't going to ask. I have no reason to." He said as he put his hands in his pockets, which I noticed he barely has anything that can resemble pants.

Then the shrill sound of a bird suddenly came out and both of us looked up to see a large, silver-white bird fly overhead.

"No way! Is it really that time!?" I called out, knowing the bird from my hometown so many years ago. "I had no idea it flew this way!"

"You know what the hell it is?" He asked.

I nodded. "There's not a real clear name for it in the town I lived in, but we call it White Luck."

"White Luck?"

I nodded again. "In the town I lived in, the birds would fly over once a year over to what we believed to be their mating grounds, but sometimes one would stop by the forest nearby to rest and if someone is brave enough to go into the forest when one resides there and gets a feather from the bird, they're guaranteed luck for life!"

"Luck? From a feather?" He said as he crossed his arms, skeptical.

I realized how silly I sounded as I continued to push the cart. "I-It's just something that everyone in my town looks forward to each year…" I said as we were once again in silence.

I won't lie, I was really happy to see that bird and, when I was younger and lived in that town, I promised myself that when I became old enough, I would attempt to go through that unofficial ritual of getting the feather of luck. That was before the Marines came to town and got the deed for the area to tear down and build a base there. The birds never returned since they started building.

After we arrived to the castle residence, we saw Mihawk on the front landing, cleaning his swords before he looked over to us.

"Ah, there you are, Roronoa. And your timing is as punctual as always, Arabella."

"Thank you, Mihawk-san." I said as I got the box of medical supplies while Zoro helped in getting the ale. "Thank you, Zoro-san."

"No formalities." He said. "And you're welcome."

I couldn't help but smile at that, finding it kinda sweet of him to help. And yes, I am crushing on him like Ran said.

"It looks like you'll be able to just leave after you place those inside." Mihawk said.

"I believe so." I said as I knew where to place the items in and headed back out to the front, where Mihawk was there with my payment. "Pleasure doing business with you as always."

"Don't go looking for trouble."

"I don't, it just finds me." I said, earning a chuckle from him before he looked to Zoro.

"Take a breather and meet me at the courtyard. We'll continue from yesterday." He said as he left.

I was about to leave as well when Zoro spoke, stopping me and turned to face him. "Yes?"

"So you come here only when Mihawk asks to get something for him?"

"That's the gist of the delivery service. In fact I got two more after this, but the trip from here to those places will at least take a week and a half at most to get there. Two to three if we hit rough currents."

"You guys take a lot of risks dispite being in the best place when it comes to cargo travel."

"Yeah, but you topside sailors also go through a lot as well. Unexpectant storms, Marine ships, other pirates that don't like your guts, sea kings and other large sea ferring creatures, not to mention what you guys might find in the air."

Zoro grinned at this. "And you guys have to worry about currents and making sure you guys have enough air to breathe."

"Among other things." I said as I smiled. "I better go then. Like I said, I got two others I have to get. And hopefully we get any more runs for us to work with."

"How often are you here anyway?"

"I'd be lucky to be here four times a year. Which is the record so far from last year."

Zoro chuckled. "I think you might be coming back a lot more than that."

"Is that an invite?" I asked, not too slow on the joking, being around the girls that love to tease me can do that.

He raised a brow before laughing. "I guess I am. Unfortunately, it's not my call."

"That's true." I said as I could tell my face was starting to warm up. "Well, I better get going then. Stay out of trouble, okay?"

"Don't you know? My captain is a magnet for trouble. And quite frankly, it's rubbed off a lot more than most are willing to admit. Including ourselves."

"Duly noted. But the only trouble I see for you is that one girl nagging at you."

"Yeah… thankfully she's keeping herself busy at the moment. I hope it stays that way." He said, looking as though he really meant it. "Her damn ghosts are annoying as all hell."

"Never got the pleasure of knowing her ability." I said as Zoro looked to be ready for that training session.

"See you around then."

"Later!" I said as we parted ways from there, and when I was out of sight, I started to run because walking at that point didn't seem to be enough for me.

After that the girls kept bugging me about how red my face was and how happy I seem to be.

It was about a year in and I've made at least ten trips since then to Mihawk's estate.

"Just give him our denden contact, it's not like the Marines have tabs on who's calling us." Ran said as I put in the latest shipment: two barrels of ale and a lot of healing ointments and gauze, a lot of them.

"Yes they do." Kaytlyn and Mia said in unison.

"But seriously!" Mia called out. "I've heard that he takes a beating, but this is ridiculous!"

"Well, he's Luffy's first mate for a reason. It's definitely not for show." I said as I can feel my arms slightly straining from the weight of the wheel barrel.

"I'll say! The guy's a damn monster! And Mihawk isn't too far from that as well." Ran said.

"Then one of you guys come with me."

"I'm too lazy to talk to two swordsmen." Ran said with a bored wave.

"I still have to look over that scanner thing those Marines updated us to." Mia said with some distaste. "I hate it when they do that!"

"And I have no need to go." Kaytlyn said. "If I was going to stare at a bunch of guys going at it with all their male pride, I rather it being in the kitchen, flames alight and savory smells fill the room."

"That's poetic." Mia said dully.

I couldn't help but smile. "Hey, if you turn that into a song, I bet Sanji would like to hear it once they get back together and we end up meeting up with them in the future."

Kaytlyn simply smiled. "It will give me something to do while you watch two guys go at it."

"Funny." I said as I made my way over to the estate once more.

Zoro has a different look each time I come over. He'll be either covered in bandages or partly. His clothes would be new one day and barely rags the next. In fact, in one of the packages Mihawk has put in the order of new clothes. Nothing fancy, but it was enough to at least get by a few months, knowing how hard he trains.

When I arrived, I saw those two, going at it as if it was a real fight. Just what I expect from two swordsmen. I also saw Perona, the ghost girl, looking bored before she noticed me. We started to get along somewhat, at least she has another female to talk to as we watched the other two.

"More ale and fix ups?" She asked, clearly bored.

"Yep, the same usual since Zoro has stayed here." I said as we watched the two.

Both men were shirtless, not surprised being it a warm day and all. Zoro doesn't have as much bandaging as he did last time, but it looks like that's going to change soon.

"His dodging is getting better." I said offhandedly. "But he still prefers to go head in. Strategic in a way, but won't be dodging from a fight easily."

"Really? I can't tell." She said. "Looks to me like two idiots going at each other with sticks."

"Just don't let them hear you say that. I'm much nicer." I said to her, finding a certain charm to the way they trained, due to my lack of fighting skills I come to admire the hard dedication they put in.

"You know… I'll believe you on that." She said as the guys were slowing down and soon stopped. "Oi! Your girlfriend is here you guys!"

"I'm not anyone's girlfriend!" I said to her as that seemed to gain their attention.

"Ah, Willins-san, waiting long?" Mihawk asked, drawing his sword into its scabbard. "You know where the glasses are?"

"Uh… Yes?"

"Bring out two glasses and grab something for yourself. We may need you to tend to some things." Mihawk pointed out. "How much do I owe you this time?"

"500 belis."

"Really? I thought it would be more." Perona said.

"Since Mihawk asked for a lot of items over the course of six months, he gets our customer loyalty discount." I explained. "That, and with you two living here, he gets a couple more cuts in his total pay." I then turned to enter the residence. "I'll be right back, don't open the ale until I get back." I quickly headed to the kitchen and grabbed two beer pitchers, and ran back out to see Zoro and Perona arguing. I couldn't help but laugh at their banters.

Once the two guys got their drinks in they were soon at their training again. Normally one would be a bit worried about guys having alcohol in their systems, but these guys are not normal and just seeing them intensely spar the way they do, you wouldn't be able to tell the difference.

"What idiots…" Perona said.

"Can you imagine them doing anything else though?"

"Guess not." She said as we continued to watch those two spar.

Once they were done, Mihawk wasn't kidding about the tending to the few cuts they got. Perona worked with Mihawk, who didn't have much to mend, while I tended to Zoro, and we would talk as I wrapped the white gauze around some of his stubborn wounds. And once I'm done, Mihawk would pay me, sometimes a little extra for doing a little extra, and I would either be ready to head out or stay the night, which wasn't going to be one of those days.

"Do you have to go?" Perona asked. "It's so annoying being the only girl here!"

"You hardly talk to her!" Zoro said.

"It's still nice to have a girl to talk to! You two are both mean and total brutes!" Perona complained as I stood there with an amused smile on my face.

"Thank you for your services once again." Mihawk said. "I never would've thought I would be needing it as much."

"It's my pleasure!" I said. "Just let me know what else you need."

"As usual." He said. "Pity I couldn't buy you to be my maid, those friends wouldn't be happy about that."

I couldn't help but laugh at that as I started to head out.

"Took you long enough!" Ran called out. "We got five new deliveries while you were gone!"

"Best get going then!" I said as I got onto the subship.

Some months go by and I returned to the estate, this time I was wearing an official Marine's clothes, which felt so odd on me, but I couldn't complain as I rolled my new steel wheel barrel with the latest shipment of ale and medical supplies, as well as clothes.

"Ah! Ara-chu!" Perona said happily as she glided up to me and hovered besides me with her happy ghosts.

"Hello, Perona-san, how are things?" I asked, noticing that her hair has a different style. "Let your hair down?"

"Yeah, I decided that the pig tails aren't doing it for me anymore." She said as she eyed one package for the clothes. "Oh! Is that the dress I ordered!?"

"I think so… I don't usually look into packages." I said as we neared the castle. "How are the men of pride doing?"

Perona turned her nose up. "Mihawk is out at the moment and that idiot isn't found since yesterday."

"Yesterday?"

Perona nodded as she pouted. "That idiot can't tell left from his right worth his life!"

"Was he training in the woods again?" I asked, since this wasn't the first time this happened.

"He started that when this bird came flying over."

"A bird? Was it white?"

"How would I know? Anyway, he mentioned something about going out for a walk, finding a different place to work on whatever sword move he was working on."

Now that was just strange, even for Zoro. "I see…" I said as I took out my little denden to call up the girls about Mihawk not being here and all that.

"That's cool." Ran said through the denden. "We can do this other delivery without you. Just let us know when Hawkie comes back so we can pick you up. Don't want you ending up being his unofficial housewife."

I sighed as I could hear her laugh. "Right."

"Or… maybe you don't mind being there… Zoro's still there, right?"

"Ranni!" I whined, knowing exactly where her teasing was leading, which made her laugh.

"Oh you can be so adorable!"

"You're lucky that I love you." I said with a bit of a smile.

"Aw! I knew you love me, but my eyes are still on a certain captain."

"Aye, aye…" I said as we parted with a few words and brought the items inside and made myself at home.

"Can you make some treats for me? I'm tired of the lack of it here!"

"Okay, I'll do that." I said as I headed to the kitchen to make some cookies.

By the time I was done it was dark and I couldn't help but be a bit concerned. Then again, I have to remember that this is Roronoa Zoro we're talking about. He isn't one of the Supernova list for nothing. But that's just my mother hen persona coming through.

That's when I heard that shrill sound of a large bird. I ran to the window to see a shillouete of the White Luck, the last rays of the sun giving the large white bird an array of colors. That's a rarest sight to behold where I'm from. 'Oh wow… Looks like I'm going to expect something that's not supposed to be taken lightly.' I thought only to wonder if Zoro was looking for a resting bird. I don't even know if he even remembers what I mentioned about that bird; it was a long while back.

It was close to midnight when I heard the door open and headed over to see Zoro, who seemed to have survived a mauling.

"Zoro!"

"Huh? Ah! Ara!" He said with a bit of a grin on his face. "When did you get in?" He had a bandage over his left eye.

"This afternoon." I said. "Perona-san said you were out finding a new place to train."

"It started off like that." He said as I noticed that he was bleeding a lot on one arm.

I sighed at seeing him. "Let me mend that cut. You can tell me all about what you've been doing since the last time I was here." I said as we headed over to the kitchen, which doubles as the medical bay. I took out the first aid kit and started cleaning and bandaging the scrapes and cuts. "So, anything exciting happen while I was gone?" I asked, expecting to hear the same thing.

Zoro took out something from his pocket and held it out. "Here."

"Z-Zoro?" I said as I looked at the white-silver feather before my bi-spectacled eyes.

"These represent luck for you, right?" He said. "I was out to get some training in today when I heard that damn bird. I saw it land somewhere around here this morning, took me forever to find it. Once I found it, it looks like it was in the process of cleaning itself or something, getting the feathers off and I grabbed one, startling it to leave. And once I got the feather, I had a hell of a time to find this place." He didn't seem pleased when he said this. "Damn trees… But it's good timing of you to come here." He grinned. "Mihawk really is right about you." He chuckled as he looked to me, only to look confused. "Oi, what's wrong? You're face is red…"

'Darn you White Luck flying into the sunset!' I thought as I looked at the feather in his hand and then back to him.

"Oi! You want the feather or not?"

"D-Don't you want it? I mean, you did find it and…"

"Take the damn feather." He said plainly.

I looked at the feather in his hand and took it, feeling a mix of happiness and a bit of guilt.

Here's the thing… Though it's true that when one finds a feather of the White Luck bird, they're supposedly, to bring good luck to those who own it. But then there's the other thing that I should've mentioned; if one finds a feather but gives it to another, especially a love interest, it's basically like proposing with a ring. I should tell him that, but I couldn't bring myself to say anything about it other than a thank you to him.

"So, what do you guys usually do with the feathers once you get them?" He asked, obvious to how I was acting before.

I smiled as I knew exactly what I had to do. I took a piece of string that I had on me for emergency mending, tied one end to get the feather, the other I asked him for some help as I grabbed a pinch of my hair and indicated to him to tie the other end around the small lock of hair. Once he was done tying it, it was hanging by my ear and I couldn't help but feel elated by the thought of having the feather hang there.

"To show off that you own one?" Zoro asked with a raised brow.

"In a way…" I said as I could feel my heart race a little. "Owning a feather this rare… it becomes a possession…"

"Like a status quo or something?"

"Y-Yeah… Kinda dumb…"

He shrugged. "Only if someone is an annoying ass…" He said as he patted my shoulder. "But you deserve it."

I can sense myself blush at this as I smiled. "Thanks Zoro… that means a lot…" I said as I could feel my heart race.

"So… You're gonna stick around for a bit?"

"Yeah. I know he never leaves money with either of you."

He grinned. "Yeah…" He said as he looked at my outfit. "Looks like the Marines are trying to keep you guys."

"Yeah…" I said as I looked down at my outfit. "It feels weird having this on, but it's not going to be long."

"That's true." He said as he yawned. "Man, I'm tired… Aren't you?"

"Yeah… I'll see you in the morning then." I said as I headed up to my room.

I stayed there for a week before Mihawk returned and mentioned the feather, which I explained the story and parted ways from there.

After that visit, the Marines kept us busy and Mihawk hasn't asked for supplies during that time.

It was two years since the war, and we were on our way to deliver something on Sabaody Archipelago.

"Well! That was our last one!" Ran said with a cheer. "Let's spend a few at that one bar that Shakky owns!"

"No thanks. I'm in no mood." Said Mia as she looked over some things that are related to their deliveries and subship updates. "Damn… We still owe fuck more to the Marines…"

"Well, what did you expect?" Kaytlyn said. "Most of our customers are Marines and their families."

"I'm still getting a drink." Ran said as she looked to me. "You comin'?"

"I'm in the mood." I said, moving a strain of hair behind my ear, but being careful about the delicate chain that held the silver feather by a small clip that the chain dangles from, and there was a single emerald bead where the feather's hollow tip and chain connect. "Besides, she always in the know."

"Exactly!" Ran said as we parted ways from Mia and Kaytlyn and headed to Shakky-san's bar that was a bit a distance away from the busy town of Sabaody Archipelago.

Once we arrived there, we were greeted with the sight of not only the bartender, Shakky, but also Rayleigh, Sanji, and a bunch of guys that looked wounded. Shakky greeted us in a friendly manner.

"Well, well! I was just thinking about you!" Shakky said as the men in the room looked to us.

"Two beautiful women!" Sanji cheered happily, as if he hasn't seen a woman in the past two years of abstance.

"Oh Kaytlyn would've died to see you." Ran said with a smile. "She should've gone with us, huh, Ara?"

"I guess so."

We asked what was going on as Shakky explained what was going on, in which surprising me that Zoro was already somewhere while Luffy is on his way.

"You've got to be shittin' me!" Ran said looking surprised.

"Now why would I do that to my favorite delivery girls?" She said with an amused smile as she looked my way. "If you stick around a bit, you might find someone you know as well."

I blushed as she knew about my crush on Zoro and Ran mentioned about the feather thing and what it meant as far as what my former town believed in.

"In fact, if you were here a bit earlier, you would've seen him being here first."

"Zoro? First? Out of everyone who came here?" Ran said. "He must've have some kind of help."

"That's my first thought." Sanji agreed, only to have hearts for eyes when he looked to Ran.

"There is a pink haired girl…" Shakky said, not being worried about Sanji's strange behavior.

"Perona-san's here as well?" I asked, not really all that surprised that she's also here as well. Despite her always complaing about Zoro, she does care for some kind of compainionship.

"Yes, and I do believe they're still around somewhere."

"I know that I'm not getting off this place until I meet Luffy. Marine regulation be damned!"

"Huh? Marines?" Sanji asked as he looked at our casual clothes, which seemed to make his eye turn to a heart.

"We're under contract with them." I said as he looked my way.

"That feather really suits you well! I'm Sanji!"

"I know who you are, Blackleg Sanji." I said. "And thank you… Someone gave it to me many months ago…" I couldn't help but blush, as I wondered where Zoro could be around the area, knowing that he would've found some way to get away from Perona.

"So, mind if we stick around?" Ran asked.

"Have I ever asked you to leave?"

"I love this bar. And I love today." Sanji said happily.

"Sorry Sanji, I'm not interested in flirts." Ran said which he seemed to laugh off.

"That's fine! As long as I can gaze at such a magnificent beauty such as yourself!"

"I'm fucking taller than you!"

It was true, Ran is the tallest girl of the group. Sometimes I hear the Marines call her the "Amazon Demon" just for her height and attitude when she's pissed off. I smiled as my denden started to buzz, which I picked up and answered it. "Yes? This is Willins speaking…"

"Ah! Willins! Glad to get a hold of ya!"

"Hello, Commodore…" I said, mentioning to Shakky to give me my third choice of drink as I talked to the Marine who talked about someone he knew in the area who would be glad to have something delivered for him, in which I agreed to meet his friend and downed the drink before getting up.

"Don't leave me!" Ran said playfully, but in a way means it. "This is our day off, damnit!"

"Yes! Please stay!" Sanji said, meaning it.

"Work is work, and we still have to get a paycheck somewhere."

"Fuck those guys!" She said, but she let me go. "You're gonna miss meeting up with a legend, ya know."

"I think I'm okay with that." I said, she and I sharing a knowing smile.

"If you do happen to see him, you be sure to tell him what he did!" She said as I blushed before telling her to quiet and left the bar, missing Sanji's question about that whole exchange.

"You don't need to know about Momma-san's private life!" Ran said to him, making me sigh.

It took me sometime to find the place that the Commodore mentioned where his buddy was located and picked up a letter envelope that was in need of delivering. I took the letter and was heading to where the subship was docked, which was next to other bunch of Marine ships that were there for the Marines that were on shore leave and the like. Or they could've heard about the Strawhats reuniting. I wandered around a bit before I heard a great deal of commotion going on, followed by an explosion.

I ran to get back to Shakky's bar, not knowing where else to go besides the subship, only to hear an old man panicking. And just my luck Kaytlyn caught up to me as she was going to tell me what went down when she stopped and looked to where the man was standing with some fishing gear, in which Sanji appeared and asked the man what's wrong.

We overheard that the man's a fisherman and mentioned a man with three katanas, green hair, and one eye. He also said that found the man sleeping on a pirate ship next to his fishing boat and that the pirate ship was coated and went down into the water.

"Wow… Your guy's sense of direction isn't a myth after all." Kaytlyn said as we saw something in the water, only to see two halves of a huge galleon ship come up from the water. "What the fuck!?"

"He's a bit ticked." I said, not at all surprised by this as I couldn't help but smile. "Well, want to say hi?"

"R-Really!?" Kaytlyn asked, obviously excited and maybe a tad nervous to talk to her crush.

"Really." I said as the two men started to argue

"Fine by me, dammit!" Zoro shouted. "I'll cut you right in two!"

"Zoro!" I called out, gaining the men's attention.

"Ah! Ara!"

"You know her!?"

"Yeah, she's a delivery girl." He said simply as he saw Kaytlyn, who was looking to Sanji. "And this is one of the other three that were with you."

"Yes, this is Rose Kaytlyn."

"Hi, nice to meet ya! Ara here just can't shut up about you after she returns from delivering." She teased."

"Lyn!"

"What the hell did you do to Ara-chan!"

"Nothing." Zoro said as he looked our way again. "What brings you here? Another delivery?"

"We're having a break." Kaytlyn said. "But who would've thought we would see you guys here."

"It must be fate for us to meet at such a time!" Sanji said, grabbing and kissing her hand. "Miss Rose…"

Kaytlyn blushed as she smiled. "You truly are a gentleman as rumors said. And I would love to try out this legendary culinary skill that I keep hearing about."

"For you, I can cook anything you wish me to make."

Zoro rolled his eyes as he looked to me. "You should ignore #7, he isn't all that."

"Go fuck yourself!" Sanji said when he got a call on his denden. "Yeah? Sanji here." He said as Franky told him where they were going to meet up, in which Lyn and I sprung a random girl talk to make it seem we have no idea what he's saying. "Roger. The Grove #42 beach, right?"

"That's it." Franky's voice was heard. "Let's meet up later!" And with that the connection went down.

"You guys going?" Lyn asked, a bit pouty since she wanted to talk to Sanji more.

"What's up?" Zoro asked.

"Weren't you listening?!" Sanji said as he mildly insulted Zoro by talking as if he was a baby.

"Okay. You're getting chopped later." Zoro said as he pointed behind him. "More importantly, isn't there a lot of noise coming from that island?"

There was a lot of noise coming from that side of the city that Lyn and I were going to investigate, but we silently agreed to let them go.

"Oi, Ara!" Zoro said as he looked to me. "Meet us at #42 Grove. You haven't seen crazy yet." He grinned.

I smiled as I nodded, and I'll admit that I blushed as well. "Okay. It will be a long while after you guys head out at this point."

He quirked a smile before he and Sanji ran to where the noise was coming from.

"Arie and Zoro, sittin' in a tree!" Lyn sang which snapped me from my moment spell and quieted her with a whine. "So? Should we call up the other girls about seeing them off?"

"Of course. We might be able to see the others as well."

"It's a damn good thing we're not wearing uniforms." She said as we headed to the beach while I let the other two know.

When we got there, however, the Marines were already there as well as Shichibujai Hancock.

"What the hell is she doing here!?" Ran called out as she and Mia made it.

"Ah! The girls!" Sanji said, hearing Ran's voice before Zoro looked to Luffy, who nodded, and got off the ship and went up to me and handed out a piece of paper, which I knew what it was.

"Huh? Zoro?"

"In case you want to pop up from the surface to say hi." He said as he patted my shoulder. "You're one hell of a delivery girl after all."

I blushed as I giggled nervously. "We'll do that." I said as he ran back to the ship.

"Hey! Are you just going to leave your wife behind with those words!?" Ran called out.

"Ran!" I said, since he doesn't know about the feather thing still.

"What!? Wife!?" Sanji practically yelled, being recovered from blood loss.

"Huh? She's your wife!?" Chopper cried out in surprise.

Zoro looked back, looking calm, which was a surprise. "Oi! Ara!" He called out as he stood there from the rail of the ship. "You know my goal is to become the strongest swordsman in the world. I'm also a pirate with a captain that will become the Pirate King! Are you willing to wait?!"

"Huh!? So it's true!?" Usopp and Nami cried out in shock.

I stood there, dumbstruck. "Wha-What!? Y-You knew about-!?"

"After you left that one week you stayed, Mihawk told me!" He said with a serious look on his face. "I was surprised at first, but I don't mind it! But I don't want to be held back!"

I slightly understood what he was saying as I smiled and called out. "I never said I was going to!" I called out. "I'll wait! I'm in no hurry!"

Zoro laughed. "Then consider yourself the fiancé of the man who will become the greatest swordsman in the world! Anyone who tries to take you away from me will taste my blade!"

I probably would've died happy here and there. "Don't you die on me then! Or I'll be one disappointed fiancé!"

"So, you're going to get married, Zoro?" Luffy asked.

"Not just yet, but after you become Pirate King."

"You're going to make her wait!?" Sanji said angrily.

"Sanji-kun!" Kaytlyn called out. "Once your captain become pirate king and he comes back for her hand, let's help out with the wedding!"

"Of course!" Sanji cried out happily.

"Oi! Luffy!" Ran called out. "You be sure he's walking straight! As captain of this small crew, I can't have your first mate hurt my first mate's feelings!"

Luffy laughed. "I don't know who you are, but okay! I trust Zoro to keep his word though!"

"We'll be seeing you then!" I called out again. "Show the world what a Pirate King's crew looks like!"

"Damn straight!" Zoro said as the ship's coating activated and they dived down into the ocean.

I stood there, holding the piece of paper that would lead me to Zoro in the near future during our travels.

"Man… you're so lucky!" Kaytlyn said. "Not only were you unintentionally proposed, but he actually said that you're his fiancé after he found out."

I blushed horribly as my heart pounded like a large drum. "I…" I started to say as I fell to my knees. "I can't believe it…" I fingered my one possession that seemed to seal the deal. 'Looks like the tale is true… When one gives a White Luck feather to another, they're bound together.' I looked up to see the Marine ships around the water, being lost to what they should do, and some of them were still stoned from Hancock's frightening ability.

"Looks like we're not associated with the Strawhat Pirates then." Mia said dully. "This never happened if the Marines asked why we were here."

"Yeah, we'll just say we were just enjoying a show." Ran said.

I nodded as well as I looked down at the paper Zoro gave me. 'Now I have another thing he gave me.' I thought, not going to forget this moment.


	19. Innocence

**Title: Innocence**

If anyone were to ask Zoro what he saw in Arabella, he would say her innocence. Some would accuse him of being a virgin hunter, others would ask if that's what he likes in a woman.

Zoro didn't really care about what the people thought of his answer, because it was true.

Arabella isn't as innocent as everyone can see, but her actions toward things hide that fact. And in some strange way, that was attractive to him when he knows that.

Arabella doesn't deny that she's not as innocent as she appears to be, but that doesn't mean she can shamelessly exploit that fact; only to a few trust worthy ones know about it. As much as she loves her three girlfriends, they were the main cause of this, but it did broaden her horizons. If not for them she would be in for a huge shock once she was out and about in the real world run by the media hype and a council of baboons.

Zoro doesn't mind an innocent girl, he just never plan on dating one due to believing that those kinds of girls have fairy-tail expectations. Arabella was different though in that she isn't naïve of some dirty jokes and that she knows the fairy tale life is just sugar coated stories with basic life morals to live by. And that was makes her attractive to him among other things he has come to know about her.

"You know, Zoro… You're pretty innocent." Arabella said suddenly, almost making Zoro choke on his drink.

"The hell!?" He said, never once heard her say any kind of questions.

"Well… remember that one day where I made you some hot chocolate? But you wanted some coffee? So I mixed the two in and you were surprised at how good the mixed drink was? I couldn't help but think that you looked cute when you're pleasantly surprised."

"You did now use me and 'cute' in the same sentence."

"Just did."

Zoro glared at her mildly before taking another swing of his drink. "You're lucky I love you."

She smiled as she placed a quick kiss on his cheek. "I love you too."

"I still hate you for getting me hooked on that damn mix."

"You're quite welcome, Hon. And don't worry, as far as cuteness goes, I still hold the top place out of the two of us."

"That's one I don't mind being second of." He said as both of them chuckled.


	20. Echoes

**Title: Echoes**

The sky was covered with dark grey clouds as a slight mist hung in the air as the once beautiful dark blue ocean took on more of an even darker grey as the Sunny, toting Law's sub behind it, sailed along the water. The Sunny would normally be full of life with laughter, arguments, and song, but on this day it was silent of anything of life.

Four men were outside on the deck, in different spots but watching the solemn ocean. Luffy watched from the left side of the deck, holding a pair of broken shades in his hand, his straw hat shadowing his eyes, but showed that he had been crying. Sanji sat at the swing as he held a hairclip of a cute whale, but it was chipped and there was a dark stain on it, there were about five used cigerettes by his feet as a sob escaped his throat. Law laid on the deck, fingering a black ribbon in-between his fingers that was torn at the ends and some parts of the length. And Zoro was at the other rail, holding onto what was once a silver feather hair piece, now caked with blood and the feather looked to be in tatters from the dried blood on it.

Zoro sighed as he started to move and headed to the clinic, which was now transformed into a morgue for the time being as he saw four cots with sheets over four lumps on the cots. He headed over to the one closest to the door and lifted the sheet to see the very pale but peaceful face of Arabella.

"_Hey Zoro! How are things?"_

He could hear her voice, but he knew it was just his mind playing tricks on him as she didn't move a muscle, nor will she ever will.

"_Oh! Zoro! Don't sneak up on me! You know I don't like it when someone does that to me!"_

He took in a shaky breath as he covered her back up before going to the desk to find the papers Chopper made for each of the girls. He picked up the one with Arabella's name on it and looked over at her cause of death.

"_Don't worry!" _

He remembered what happened that would lead to this.

"_We'll keep them busy! You guys get what you came here and all of us will meet you back out at sea!"_

"_Yeah! Like she said!" Ran said with a grin._

"_I can't believe we're doing this!" Kaytlyn called out as she had her gun out. "But those guys deserve one in-between the eyes!"_

"_Especially that last stunt they pulled!" Mia called out as she got ready to head into the sub. "We better head over there now while we still have an opening!"_

"_Right!" Said the group of girls as Ran patted Luffy's shoulder, who looked as though he had a bad feeling about this and had actually begged them not to go through with this._

Zoro sighed as he saw the list of the wounds one girl had to endure before death, it made him sick in his stomach and placed the report down.

It was only five hours ago that they had found the remains of the sub, turned on its side and only the front side sticking up, showing a broken glass where they found Mia, still on the controls and suffered a lot before they got to her. She died in Law's arms as he got to her. Zoro, Sanji, and Luffy ran around the sub to find out that Ran was holding onto a large gaping wound on her side, it looked more like her side was chomped by a shark. Sanji found Kaytlyn curled up in the corner of the room, with bandages around her arms and legs, red from her blood, and her mouth was smeared with blood the escaped through her lips as he found out more bullet wounds on her torso. Zoro found Arabella floating on the water that got in, eyes open and dead staring at him, her red hair seemed much darker from the blood that seeped out from the final blow spot just above her temple, staining the silver feather into an ugly red.

To say it was a heavy blow on them would be an understatement. Both Chopper and Law checked all four of them over for two hours before both went out with their final reports, and both looked broken as both had the unfortunate honor of figuring out what their cause of death was.

Sanji and Luffy cried for an hour and a half before joining Zoro and Law out on deck, the rest of the crew were somewhere where they could keep an eye on them, but not be seen to give them space to morn. Law had been deadly silent and seemed to stop moving all together as soon as he fell onto the ground and stared at the ribbon that Mia wore to hold her hair up. Zoro held onto the feather hair clip, not liking the color of it at all as he saw that it wasn't the same feather that she wore when she was alive and laughing, talking, sleeping, and singing.

"_Why do you wear that?"_ He remembered asking her about it one time when their paths crossed again.

"_This?" She asked as she pointed the feather. "Well, I just like it. Pretty much like your earrings."_

He went back out to see Law was going to enter.

"Did you say your farewells?" He asked in a dead tone that wasn't there before. Zoro shook his head that he didn't, making the doctor captain nod. "I don't think I'm ready either…" He said as he went past the swordsman and to the cot that had the smallest body lump on it.

'Are we even ready for this?' Zoro thought as he looked at the cot that held Arabella's dead form. 'Did any of us expect them to end up like this?' He bit his lower lip as he exited the clinic room and headed up to the crow's nest, where he thought he saw her, sitting at the bench, looking out the window like she would normally do when waiting for him, but after a blink, she was gone. His heart felt torn as he was just so used to seeing her around when she and the others crossed paths and were able to tag along for a bit before leaving once again.

He sat down on the bench, finding the room foreboding now that he remembered the talks they both had in this very room as he worked out and she liked to be up here because she could see everything in the room. The laughter they shared seemed to echo out of his mind and into the room, making him hold his head, trying to drown out the noise. He closed his eye and saw glimpses of her as he started to cry.

"Damn it… Damn it…" He sobbed as he let go of the bloodied and tattered feather, a few flakes of dried blood fell onto the floor. "Ara… Ara I'm so sorry…"

"_Zoro."_

He looked up to see a transparent form in front of him as he looked up to see her, he was shocked as he leaned back to see her sad smile and looking like she had never had those wounds.

"_It's not your fault. We chose to do what we did in order for you guys to escape."_

He felt angry about that as he glared at her. "You didn't have to fucking die! We could've handled it!"

She shook her head. _"Not that time… They were truly prepared for you."_ She said, her voice seemed distant and soft. _"None of us didn't want anything to happen to you guys."_

"And now you're all dead because of it."

"_And we don't regret it."_ She said with a sad smile. _"It was scary, yeah, but at least it was fast for me, the others had to suffer through it though…"_

None of this seemed comforting to Zoro as he just stared at the young woman ghost in front of him as she stood there, patiently, just like how she's always is. "Why?" He asked as she seemed confused by this. "Why did you die for us?"

Arabella smiled a little happier, as if it was something to be proud of. _"This might sound overly cheesy, but…" _She giggled, which sounded a bit forced but the smile was genuine. _"Love. Pure and simple."_

Zoro was completely dumbfounded by this. "Love?" He echoed her as she nodded.

"_Yep. None of us can't stand the thought of you guys being caught."_ She said as she looked out at the window off to her side, as if avoiding his gaze. _"And I don't want to think what would happen to you if we didn't do what we did."_ She then gazed back to him, only to look down at the feather on the ground. _"Can you put the feather back when my body is ready to be released? Unless you want to keep it."_

Zoro looked down at the feather as he picked it back up. He looked the feather over before he looked up at her. "I would like to keep this, if that's okay."

She giggled and nodded. _"I don't mind!"_ She said as she went up to him, only to sit down next to him. _"Can you promise me something?"_

Zoro wasn't sure where this was going, but he nodded regardless.

"_Don't do anything to end your life short, okay?"_ She said as she looked serious at him. _"I don't want you to kill yourself for any reason other than you're fighting a tough opponent."_

He raised a brow as he was a bit lost on this. "You know I do that anyway."

"_I know, I'm just letting you know."_ She said as she seemed to smile sadly at him. _"Otherwise you would never see me or Kuina again if you do so."_

His eye widen at the mention of the name, never mentioning Kuina's name in any of their talks. "How did you know?"

"_She told me."_ She said as she seemed to be fading fast. _"I have to go soon…"_ She seemed a bit hesitant of something as she said it, but her voice dimmed to that of a wind's whisper.

"Wait! Ara!" Zoro called out as he reached out to her, only for her to disappear, which he fell and hit the ground. When he got up, it was actually morning. 'Was… was I asleep?' He thought as he looked at the ruined feather. 'Was that… all a dream?'

"Zoro…"

He looked up to see Robin as she wore full on black.

"We're about to-"

"Don't!" He said as he looked at the feather next to his hand. "Is everyone already out?"

"Luffy isn't coming out…" Robin said as she stood beside the swordsman. "We understand if you want more time, but you are the only one who we're really waiting for."

"Why?"

"Because Luffy already said his goodbye. So have Sanji and Law."

Zoro felt somewhat numb by this as he sluggishly got up. "I'll be down in a bit." He said as he picked up the feather. "I… I'll wash up…"

"Take your time." Robin said as she headed to where she came in before she stopped short of exiting. "You should see her again…" With that she left.

Zoro stood there before he found the strength to move out of the crow's nest, washed himself, and found something black to wear, which took more will power to put it on before he went out to head over to the clinic, only to stand by the door, which was opened to see that the four women were not covered by the sheets, but dressed in something white.

He took a deep breath as he entered and saw that the girls were definitely dolled up, not too much, but enough to make them look lovely, which was a waste in his eyes. He looked to see Arabella, and for a moment she looked like she was sleeping, but he knew better. He looked at her as he placed his hand over her folded ones that were cold to the touch, which he brought his hand back. He saw that she wore something like a yukata in pure white. He took a deep breath as he slowly let it out, which seemed to echo around the room.

"Ara… Thank you…" He said as he stared at her peaceful face. "Thank you for being you… And I'm glad I got to know you the way I do. And… This is goodbye… for now…" He said, not feeling very convinced, but enough so when Chopper came in and let him know that it was time and they headed up to the deck where the crews of his and Law's gathered around the combined ceremonial funeral rafts for the girls.

As he saw Arabella's body being laid down onto the flowers that were in her raft, he realized this will be the very last time he would see her like this. "Wait…" He said as he went up to the stilled form and leaned down to kiss her pale lips.

If anyone was bothered by this, they didn't comment nor tried to stop him.

He then stepped back as Franky and Chopper placed the raft onto the water, where everyone else took a small boat, Zoro was grouped with the other three as he and Law rowed a bit while Franky and Chopper rowed on their own, dragging behind the raft with the four girls.

When they were some distance away from Sunny, the four men were looking at the setting sun and each held a match in their hand. Chopper and Franky rowed around them and stayed behind them with the others.

"It seems fitting…" Sanji said. "Doing this at this time…" He looked to see Kaytlyn, dressed in a beautiful white dress that would be more fitting for a wedding, but he can't deny that it looks beautiful on her.

Law sighed as he looked at the raft, seeing Mia in a beautiful white dress with lace fingerless gloves. She would no doubt kill Nami for putting the dress on her.

Luffy looked to see that Ran wore something that she knew she wouldn't normally wear, but this wasn't something neither of them can complain about, and she looked peaceful in it.

Zoro held his match as he looked at the other three, who seemed to share the same thought as he was.

'It's time.'

They lit their matches and threw it onto the raft, where they saw the raft suddenly going ablaze, blending into the burning sunset. They stood there as they watched the raft burn everything that was on it as it was going towards the sun.

Zoro closed his eye for a moment, only to feel a gentle stroke of his face before opening his eye to find no one doing any motion like that. And he knew Robin well that she wouldn't do that. He looked up to see the moon ahead and felt a certain peace as he could hear the distant giggle he had grown to recognize.

"_I love you."_

Zoro smiled a bit as he took a deep breath. 'I promise…'


	21. Only Human

**Title: Only Human**

Ex-Pirate Hunter and First Mate of the Strawhat Pirates, Roronoa Zoro is known far and wide as someone you shouldn't mess with without a death wish. The bounty he has doesn't nearly reflect on his skills when faced with a powerful opponent or a poor, unsuspecting dead man. Anyone lesser than those of the rank of any of the supernovas, would cower in fear of the mere mention of his name and run at the sight of him. He was deemed a monster, a demon for his way of fighting and the pleased look he gets from a worthy fight that made him look like Hell itself spat out for fear of their existence. The only times he seems human is when he's around the crew or when no one disturbs him when strolling through the town, but even then he looks like he could kill you with just a glare.

On one such cloudy day, the Sunny hit a port town and Luffy launched out first before some of the others from his crew were able to set up a way to get off of the ship to do their shopping or just to stretch out their legs.

"Come on guys! We don't want to waste the day!"

"Would you shut up!" Nami called out as she narrowed her brown eyes at her captain. She moved a strand of her long ginger hair behind her ear as she sighed. "We're here for supplies only. Don't do anything stupid to get attention. Alright?"

"Oi! Zoro! Where are you going?"

"Listen to when people are talking to you!" Nami shouted.

The said man looked back, his lone working eye looking at his childish captain. "Just walking around. Maybe find a good bar around here."

"Don't waste money on stupid things!" Nami called out, in which Sanji agreed immediately.

Zoro waved it off as he wasn't going to deal with the two today or anything that would annoy him. He wanted to do his own thing without the crew tagging along or to talk to him. It was his day today, and he was going to do what he wanted for this day. That is until he found himself in a forest.

"The hell? Where the hell is the town?" He said aloud as he looked for a way back to the town, only to find a beach. "Better than nothing." He looked both sides before he saw someone running up the shore, followed by a group of what looks like wild boars.

"Leave me alone!" The young woman cried out. "I said I was sorry!" She then tripped on a pile of seaweed, her glasses flying a few feet away from where she fell and she tried to get up only to see Zoro in front of her, staring down at the wild boars as they backed up before turning around and running away from them. She sighed as she fell onto the sand. "Oh doggies… I thought I was going to die…"

"Oi, you okay?" Zoro asked as she looked up, squinting her eyes a bit.

"I will be when I get my glasses…" She said as she looked either side of her before he bent down a bit and opened his hand with her glasses. "Oh! My glasses! Thank you!" She placed them on, noticing some scratches on them that she just shrugged off, and looked up to see the lone emerald eye of the swordsman. "Hello."

"Yo." He said as he held out a hand for her to get up. "You can stand right?"

She nodded as she grabbed his hand and was helped up. "Thanks for saving me back there."

"What the hell did you do to get them to chase you anyway?"

"Walked into their territory without knowing it was." She said as she wiped the sand off of her. "I'm Arabella. Willins Arabella, first mate of the delivery company, Grand Current Deliveries."

"Eh? 'Grand Current Deliveries'?"

"It's a completely new delivery service." Arabella explained. "In fact… me and my friends are the only ones even crazy enough to try…"

"Hard to believe." He said as he studied her.

Arabella had shoulder length dark red hair, fair skin, hazel-green eyes, looks to be about twenty-one, and wearing comfortable outing clothes. He also took in her body posture, which seemed a bit hunched over, as if going in a defense if needed to make a run for it, but curious about him as she patiently waited for him to say something before she scratched her head.

"Y-Yeah… I'm not what you could say an adventurous type, but we couldn't get work anywhere else and so… yeah…" She said as her shoulders slumped.

He shrugged. "Not that I care." He said bluntly. "But you wouldn't happen to know where we are?"

She blinked as she shook her head. "Nope. Just that we're on a beach." She said as she looked either way as she pointed to the way behind Zoro. "I know that there's a port town that should be in that direction. If we just walk along here, we're sure to see the port town."

Zoro looked back to see that there was nothing but the sea on one side, the forest on the other, and the shore they were on. "Okay, sounds reasonable enough." He said as they walked side by side.

They've been walking for an hour and not one word has been spoken.

"You're pretty quiet." He said suddenly, making her jump a bit.

"Huh? Oh, yeah. I'm only like that to people I don't know too well. And I can only talk to them when they start talking to me."

"I see. So how the hell did you end up getting chased by those boars?"

"Oh, I was just going to walk around town to stretch out my legs after being in the sub for nearly a month."

"Sub?"

"Oh, right, I didn't say that did I? Well, our deliveries are by submarine, which makes it easier for us to keep the products safe. Down side to it is that we have to deal with violent currents, sea kings, and other under water dangers. Not to mention the chance of losing any mental sanity from not being out and about like now for a long period of time."

"Huh, sounds like a good way to do what you do though." He said with a grin as he chuckled. "You don't have to worry about pirates trying to steal anything from you. Unless they also have submarines." He said, not discounting Law's yellow sub.

"Yeah, like the Heart Pirates." She said, oblivious to the other's expression. "I wonder whatever happened to them? It's all we heard about since Law became a warlord, but then after that, nothing. I guess that's what happens when an infamous pirate becomes a warlord…" She said as she tried to think about that. "But it's kinda dumb that the government would want pirate warlords to try and traffic all the other pirates. Don't you think?"

"I really don't care." Zoro said.

She shrugged. "I don't understand politics anyway, but it's kinda bothersome to not think about it either."

"That's just you then."

"Yep, but I guess I'm just human like that, questioning what's right and wrong in a world full of grey areas. But that's fine. I rather have spotty grey areas then indefinite black and whites."

"You're a strange one thinking things like that."

"What about you then? I know you don't care, but you must have some opinion on something, even if it is pointless." Arabella said as she looked at him, tilting her head to the side.

He sighed as he bluntly told her his view. "I can honestly say that I really don't care for what the government is doing now or what they're really up to. The fact of the matter is that they're there and doing what they are doing is all that they can do. If they got some other plans they would have someone else do the dirty work and all that crap."

She nodded. "That sounds about the same lines I'm thinking. But then what can we do? We don't desire that kind of power if it means making everyone else pawns in some game." She said with a sigh.

"There's nothing you can do, especially since you don't have anything to do with politics."

"True." She said as she saw something in the distance. "Do you see something that looks like a town over there?"

He looked as well and sure enough he saw a dock with some small boats for small game fishing and smiled. "Looks like we picked the right side to get back to town."

She nodded. "Yep!" She said as they headed to town. "Huh… Looks like we're at the opposite end of the town. I don't remember this port at all."

"Yeah… It doesn't look familiar to me either." Zoro said as he pointed to a direction. "Let's keep going."

"Uh you're going the way we came in." She said as she saw him stop his tracks. "Everything okay? We can get something to drink around here. Can't travel dehydrated you know. It will just mess with you."

"Yeah…" He said as he followed her around the town until he started to recognize a few buildings.

"Starting to look familiar to you to?"

"Yeah."

"That's good, it means we're in the right area now." She said as she saw the clock tower and her eyes grew wide. "Oh my gosh! Is it really that late already?"

Zoro looked at the clock tower as well and saw that they were closing in on the evening time. "Huh…" He voice. "So it is. Have to be somewhere at a certain time?"

Arabella looked back at Zoro and shook her head. "No, just stating the obvious." He grinned as they started to walk around.

It was close to a half hour before some kind of ruckus came up from the lower part of the town that had a hill where the 'downtown' area was and they were just heading down when the commotion happened.

"I wonder what's going on?" Arabella asked as the other shrugged.

"Does it really matter?" Zoro said as they were going to make their way down when he heard someone calling out a command and saw some men in the marine's uniform start running down from the other stairs. "Shit…"

"What's wrong?" She asked when a Marine behind her appeared and gasped.

"Roronoa Zoro!"

This surprised her, not seeing the marine behind her as the man held up his gun towards the man.

"Duck!" He said, which she did as he drew his katana out, deflecting the bullet and knocked out the marine, which seemed to alarm the other marines in the area. "Shit…" He said as he looked to see that Arabella was okay. "Best to get out of here while we can."

"Right." She said as she practically led the way back up to the upper levels and back towards the forest. "I can't believe I have to go through this forest again!" She looked back to see that Zoro was following in stride with her, which she wasn't a fast runner, and suddenly he grabbed her by the wrist and they were behind a tree as they waited silently for the marines to get themselves lost or give up and start heading out. After a moment of silence, they ventured out and carefully made their way back to town.

"That was a bit too much excitement for me for one day…" Arabella said as she was sure the coast was clear of any marines. "I hope the other girls are okay…"

"Your crew?"

"More like my friends, but yeah. We were going to meet back up at the docking port after we're done here, but if the marines are here… I don't know… I don't know if we still have that license thing with us."

"If the marines are here, that means someone recognized one of us and called in the Calvary."

"So you're really Zoro?"

"Yeah."

"I kinda figured, but I didn't like to pry." She said as she let them out of the forest.

"In any case, I would have to get back to the ship if we're going to get the hell off of this island now."

"Right. As a pirate that's one of many things you have to do when marines are around." Arabella said as she led them back to the docking ports, being careful about not running into a marine, which raised a question to Zoro.

"Oi, if you know who I am, why are you helping me?"

She shrugged. "Because you didn't really do anything for me to reveal you to the marines. And I know you can take care of yourself just fine if I did."

"But it's unusual."

"Let's just say that it's just my human nature to help out someone I know is a good person." She said as she looked at him. "You would do the same for me."

He grinned as he nodded. "Yeah, thank you."

She nodded as they made their way to the ship, which a few of the crew members were fighting off the marines. "You better help them out and get out of here."

"Yeah. Well! See you around." He said as he headed into the fight and got onto the ship.

"What took you man?" Luffy said, but he was grinning. "You missed out all the fun!"

"I was hanging out with a delivery girl, nothing too exciting."

"You? With a girl?" Sanji said. "Hard to believe that kind of bullshit!"

"Can it! Let's get out of here before we get a whole swarm of them!" Zoro said as they headed out, taking out a few marine ships along the way.

A few hours later and they were finally in calm waters.

"That was close…" Usopp said as he and Chopper sighed in relief.

"I'm going to sleep." Zoro said as he was stopped by Nami. "What is it?"

"You have night watch, remember?"

"Huh?" Zoro said as he sighed. "Fine!" He then headed up to the crow's nest, where he saw a dark spot just beside their ship and knew it was Law's submarine and looked behind the ship to see the town getting smaller. 'I wonder how that girl is doing now, what was her service called again? 'Grand Line Current' or something like that?' He sighed as he picked up a weight and just worked out as he watched the sun sink beyond the horizon, taking a quick note of Law's sub submerging and Law's slightly baffled face of being nearly left behind, in which Luffy laughed and said that he knew he was going to catch up easily and that he would take care of himself, which Law sighed out his annoyance and possibly wondering why he even made an alliance with him. But then it would've been easy for him to break it off.

He continued his watch before he saw Brook come up, waving to him to come down and he did. "Morning Brook." He said as he landed on the deck.

"Yohohoho! Morning to you as well!" Brook said as he tilted his head, which was comical. "Are you well? You seem distant."

"I'm just tired." He responded as he passed the skeleton musician. "I'm going to hit the sack. See you later."

"See you! Though I don't have eyes to see with! Yohohoho!" Brook laughed, which Zoro had to grin before going to sleep.

The next day, he was woken up by his captain, probably told by the crap cook to wake him up so that the rubber idiot can eat. Sure never mind that he didn't really get a nap in all day yesterday and only slept a few hours. Well, he can take a nap today just to piss the fancy pants off.

When they got onto the deck, he had to rub his eyes and blink a few times to see that there were four new faces, and one of those faces was very familiar, especially when said girl looked his way and waved him a good morning.

"Na? Who are you?" Luffy asked, apparently they got on board while he was busy trying to wake up his first mate.

That's when a tall young woman came up to him, a grin on her face as she fingered her dark tanned skinned fingers to her dark shades and moved them down slightly to reveal brown eyes, her right eye blind. "The name's Ran. I'm the captain of the Grand Current Deliveries, and we just thought you guys would be our first pirate customers."

"Eh? Deliveries?" Luffy said as he tilted his head.

"Yeah… Normally we wouldn't even bother with pirates. Since they're always butt hurt and a real pain in the ass when you do try to work with them." Ran said as she grinned. "But for this crew as well as the Heart Pirates, we're willing to make an offer."

"Yeah… About that…" Nami said, suspicious about the tall woman who towered slightly over Zoro. "Why are you making an offer?"

"Simple really. Macho man over there helped our sweet housewifey out of trouble."

Zoro looked to see that Arabella facepalmed at the nickname.

"And as thanks for that, we're willing to do business with you guys. But I'll warn you guys now, we're new to this business so don't expect any deliveries made will get to the destination as quickly as you like." Ran said as she shrugged. "And if you don't take the offer, that's fine. I just figured it was a good way of saying thanks for keeping my adorable and sweet natured first mate from getting into trouble." She went over to Arabella and patted her head. "I mean, can you deny the innocence radiating off of her?"

"Ramen…" Arabella said as her face was turning red.

"Will it cost us anything?" Nami asked.

"Well, the first delivery, if you so well take up the offer, or we'll just do it for the hell of it, will be free of charge. But if you do take up our offer of being customers, or if we run into each other again, then you'll pay up in the amount of the difficulty of the location and how well I actually like you." Ran said with a sadistic grin. "You don't want to be on my bad side if you want to keep your savings…"

"Oi!" Called out the shortest girl in the group with silver hair in a high pony tail, bright blue eyes, and fair skin. "If they don't want our service then let them be. Plus we should get our asses moving."

"Aw, Mia…" Said the third girl that's taller than Mia and only slightly shorter than Arabella, with black, ebony hair that reached down to her back and ocean blue eyes, and also fair skinned. "Lighten up, it's not every day we're in the presence of famous pirates after all." She said as she smiled at Sanji, who seemed to be in love mode.

"Quit air flirting the king of flirts." Mia said dully, causing Zoro and Law to chuckle at that.

"Fine…" Ran said, a bit put off that her fun was cut short. "Well, anyway, what's it going to be?"

Nami seemed to consider this before she nodded and told the four girls to wait while she and the rest of the Strawhats, along with the Heart pirates, gathered up. "Well? Anyone want something delivered to someone? I plan on sending something, since she did offer it for free." This was responded by a few 'oi' around.

"Well… I think Kaya and the boys might like something of mine that I don't use anymore…" Usopp said as Chopper filled in that he would like to send Doctrine something.

Zoro looked from the corner of his good eye to see that the girls were watching them, Arabella seeming to tell Ran something as the tall woman pinched her cheek while giggling at her. Before he knew it, he felt an elbow ram his side and he looked to see Nami as the others were looking at him. "What?"

"Do you have anything to send?" Nami asked with a raised brow.

"No." He said bluntly as everyone broke off except for Sanji as he seemed to grin at him. "What's that creepy face for, Pervert Cook."

"You like one of those girls."

He glared at the blonde chef. "What the hell?"

Sanji would've continued, but then Nami shook hands with Ran and everyone seemed to scramble to get their deliveries ready for departure. "Sorry, but I've got more important things to do." He brushed the other off as he quickly got things together.

Zoro could feel a vein pop out as he wanted to hurt that fancy ass chef to nothing when he heard the soft voice and turned to see Arabella.

"S-Sorry about this…" She said as she was pink on the cheeks, but her body language clearly says that she's nervous. "I simply told them what happened yesterday and the girls wanted to thank you, at first, but then turned out to this."

Zoro shrugged. "It's no big deal. We rarely get this kind of excitement where we don't have to deal with the marines."

She nodded. "A different change in scenes today then."

"Yeah." He said as she handed out a piece of paper to him. He knew what it is as he saw the name at the corner of the paper to be her name.

"Just in case." Arabella said as her face was getting darker due to her blush. "Ran will definitely make this crew as part of our customer's list. She's not simply going to let you guys off the hook for a free delivery after all…"

Zoro grinned as he nodded. "Understood." He said as he placed the piece of paper in his pocket. "You be careful now. As one first mate to another, you better stay in top shape and always let your captain and your crew know what would be best, and don't ever get yourself chased by wild boars again." He smiled as she laughed as she nodded.

"I'll keep that in mind." She said as she heard her captain calling her. "We're also leaving behind some barrels for you and your crew, as an extra free gift."

Zoro laughed at this. "We're getting special treatment!"

She laughed as well. "Well, it's only human nature to give a gift when feeling thankful, right?"

Zoro nodded as Ran called out Arabella's name and the girl waved to him as he did the same while watching her run up to the side of the ship's rail and jumped over to the deck of the sub beside the ship.

With that everyone on the ship wished the four girls well as the girls went into the sub and soon the sub sank into the water.

"You do like her."

Zoro looked to see Sanji and glared, which the other grinned.

"There's nothing wrong with it. It's quite refreshing actually." Sanji said with an accomplished grin. "It just shows you really are human."

Zoro didn't comment on that as he went somewhere else to train, but he did look back out into the ocean and fingered the piece of paper in his pocket. 'Hope we meet again.' He thought as he continued his daily routine.


	22. Pretense

**Title: Pretense**

It was nearly four months and a half since they were dating, and Zoro was starting to get distant from Arabella. At first it didn't really bother her, thinking that, because now he has two jobs he was getting somewhat stressed and needed some time to do what he has to and not date for a while, since he still keeps in contact with her for some time. But sometime after that the calls gotten less, and even the texting halted, but for a week she didn't think much of it, but after a while she started to worry.

"Hey Luffy," She called up the one person who's close to her boyfriend and see what was going on.

"_Yo! Arie! What's going on?"_

"Nothing much, school and work mostly. But I have a question."

"_Okay."_

"Have you heard from Zoro lately?"

"_Na… I talked to him last night."_

"Really? Does he sound okay?"

"_Yeah, he sounds like he usually does."_

'That's nothing much to go by…' She thought as she spoke, "Well, has he mentioned about working too much or is he having trouble with something?"

"_Na… I don't think so…"_ Luffy hummed. _"Why don't you ask him?"_

"That's the thing, I haven't heard from him for some time. And I sent him a text two days ago asking if everything was okay on his end?"

"_Oh!"_ Luffy seemed to understand, which would be a miracle if he truly did understand. _"He said something that he was tired of something."_

"Tired of something?" She echoed, a bit worried about what that meant. "Uh, Luf, I think I'm going to try contacting him again. Do you know when he gets off work? I don't know if his schedule changed."

"_Oh yeah, he should be off now."_ Luffy informed. _"In fact he just walked in. We're having a guy's movie night tonight!"_

"Oh, okay." She said as she was a bit relieved as she heard Zoro's voice in the distance asking who Luffy was talking to, and Luffy responded that it was her and asked if he wanted to talk to her for a moment while he got the movies ready. She heard the phone being exchanged and had her breath held in.

"_Yo, Ara. What's up?"_

"Nothing much, but I'm a bit worried about you, and that's why I called Luffy."

"_Ah…"_ Zoro said as he sighed. _"I've just been stressed is all. I wasn't really up to talking to anyone, and Luffy practically bugged me to do this."_

"Oh, I see. Well, I hope you have a good time."

"_Knowing Luffy, it would be anything at this point."_

She can hear how tired he was and wished she could help in some way. "Is there anything I can do?" She asked, waiting for what seemed like a too long a moment for a response, but she was patient if not a bit on edge out of worry.

"_No… There's nothing you could do."_

"Oh… Okay…" She said, hearing the slight annoyed grunt that would turn to a full on angry tone if pushed too much. "Well… Is there a time for me to come see you? Even for a minute?" She asked, biting her lip as she heard the heavy sigh. 'That doesn't sound good…' She thought with some nervousness.

"_Next week at the convenience store."_ Zoro said finally. _"I have a short shift and…"_ He sighed. _"I have to talk to you about something."_

"O-Okay…" She said as she said good night to him, which she only had a grunt in return before he hung up. She stared at her cell, where there's a picture of Zoro, asleep on the couch one day, wearing a dark blue tank and had his mouth open in a snore. She loved the picture and put it as her phone screen, but now she's worried about what the talk is going to be about.

For the whole week, she tried to get the troubling thought out of her mind, but she wasn't able to, and she was getting more and more quiet that even her friends and roommates are starting to notice that something was off. She wasn't able to sleep right for those nights, thanking whatever higher power that she didn't wake up Ran who shared a room with her. This allowed her to get sleepy at work, but she forces herself awake to make it through a full time's work and it was even worse when she had school, where she would try her best not to sleep in class.

When the appointed time finally came, she had dark circles under her eyes, which were somewhat covered by her glasses, and the icy cold rock at the pit of her stomach seemed to let out something that made her feel nauseated as she stepped out of the apartment to find the convenience store just a few blocks away.

She arrived just as Zoro was heading out of the store with his backpack over his shoulder. She was going up to him when a girl with high pink pig tails stomped out of the store and started to shout at him. She wasn't able to hear, but she felt a bit like a third wheel just watching them having some kind of spat, in which Zoro looked beyond annoyed and the girl was acting childish. Then she saw the other girl grab his arm and Zoro looked annoyed, but not doing anything to pull away from her.

'What's this?' She thought as the icy stone in her stomach is not only making her feel sick, but seemed to also make her emotional as well as she felt tears coming up in her eyes. Then she felt ridiculous standing there watching this, but she didn't know whether to go up to him or just run. She felt like running, but she felt as though the cement walkway had a hold of her and was forced to watch as her boyfriend and this strange yet cute, punk gothic Lolita girl arguing about something. She then looked down at her feet, feeling the tears fall from her eyes and the bile seemed to want to come up, which she swallowed to keep it down as her body felt warm from the emotion she's feeling right now. She then found the strength to move her feet and turned away from the convenience store, letting the tears fall as her eyes stung from her eyes being dry and the extra salty tears that came up to irritate a little.

She continued to walk, head down, and moving rather slow, as if it took a lot of effort to lift her feet and the air around her was as thick as sand. Then she felt a hand on her shoulder and looked up to see Zoro.

"Oi, didn't you hear me call you?" He said with a bit of a glare when he saw the tear stains on her face. "Ara?"

She tried to swallow the lump in her throat, while biting her lower lip to keep herself from down-right bawling in front of him. "Y-You w-wanted to… to… to tell m-me so-somethi- thing…?" She managed to word out as she took a deep breath and looked anywhere but Zoro, who then grabbed her chin to force her to look up at him.

"Yeah, I want to talk to you, but not when you're like this." He said as he wrapped an arm around her shoulders and they headed to a direction, which in Zoro's case, they would be lost in the next five minutes, but she didn't really care. "Something bothering you?"

Somehow she found the question annoying as she explained in an upset tone of voice along with stuttering about what she had been through emotionally and mentally the last time they talked. When she was done she stopped walking and let her tears come out and didn't really care that if she was making a scene, everyone could care less what's going on.

Zoro stopped walking as he simply held her and let her cry. He looked down at her as she was letting out what he was sure that she had held in for the whole week. He felt a little bad for it, since he didn't mean to let her feel this way, but he really had to clear something, and thinking about from the last time they talked, it did sound bad.

When she finally felt spent enough of her tears, her eyes were now red from crying, she felt emotionally drained that she could be run over by a bike and not care if she got hurt for at least fifteen minutes. She held Zoro as she took a deep breath, taking in his scent, and starting to feel calm from the embrace the other had around her.

He sighed as he rubbed the top of her head. "Arie-chan…" He said quietly, not used to using fond nicknames, but it caused Arabella to look up, a bit quizzingly at him. "Don't tell anyone…" He said as he had a bit of a blush on his cheeks.

She couldn't help but chuckle at that, rarely seeing him being put on the spot and seeing him being a bit bashful. "I won't, you know that."

"Yeah…" He said as he ran his hand through her hair. "Sorry for troubling you. I didn't intend to make you feel that way."

She felt happy to hear that as she wiped away her cheeks. "You were stressed and I didn't know what's going on."

"Yeah, about that. I wanted to talk to you about something."

She blinked as she nodded. 'At least now I know he's not going to dump me.'

He sighed as he scratched his head. "Well…" He then dug into his pocket and held up a dark blue box. "The reason I didn't contact you as much for a while was because I wanted to have enough for our future dates. I don't mind that you split the bill on all our dates, but I want to at least once, pay for most of our dates from this point on." He held out the box. "Also, I wanted to get this for you."

Arabella took the box that fit in the palm of her hand, carefully opened it to see it was one of those slip on earrings in gold and three tear drop dangling charms. She blinked as she looked up at him, question on her features.

"I know you don't like your ears pierced, so I looked for any jewelry place that can make those kinds of earrings and I had to work long shifts and training new workers to earn the extra income to get it purchased."

"Why?"

"Because you're my girl." He said simply as he grinned. "And I want people to know that when they see your earrings.

She blushed as she looked at the new piece of jewelry as she took it out of the box and worked at getting it on, which Zoro stepped in as he successfully put the jewelry on.

"Not bad." He said with a nod of approval.

She shook her head a bit, liking the sound of the charms hitting each other to create some kind of chime, giggling as she did.

"There's the smile." He said as he bent down to kiss her, which she returned before parting. "Come on. Let's get back to your apartment. I'm beat." This caused Arabella to giggle. "I'm serious. I was stuck with that bratty chick to train practically for the whole fucking week."

"Huh? That Lolita girl with the pink hair?"

"Yeah… Perona is her name." He sighed. "And somehow I feel like losing my spirit every time I was stuck with her…"

She leaned her head onto his upper arm as they held hand and hand as they walked to the apartment. "I'm sure she'll have a different schedule after her training is complete."

"She completed it tonight actually. So the next time I go to work, I won't see her ever again." He said.

"Why was she clinging onto earlier?"

He shrugged. "I don't know, and quite frankly I was too tired to shake her off, and if I did she'll get twice as annoying for being rude." He said as he looked down at her. "Then I saw you turn away and started to walk in a defeated manner. Did you think I was going against you?"

"I didn't know what to think, but I hadn't slept well as well."

"Yeah…" He said as they reached the apartment. "I haven't been sleeping well either. So, sorry if you get a call from your land lord about any disrupting noises due to my snoring."

She giggled as she shook her head. "I've heard worse, Hon." This caused the other to chuckle as they reached the apartment, which Ran welcomed Zoro with a punch in the face.

"Do that shit again with Mamma-san and you're a dead man!" Ran said as she dragged Luffy out of the apartment, telling a shocked Arabella that she would be back later and to not do anything while she was gone.

"Zoro? Are you okay?" Arabella asked as Zoro groaned.

"I will be when I wake up in the morning." He said as they went into the apartment, where he took up the couch while she grabbed a blanket before saying good night and fell asleep in their respective places.


	23. Summer Haze

**Title: Summer Haze**

"It's so hot…" Ran said as she and the other girls were out on the deck of their sub as they were floating along the surface of the water.

"Get over it…" Mia said as she looked over the blueprints of their sub. "Until I fix whatever is wrong with this sub, we're not going anywhere."

Kaytlyn looked around where they were and saw that there were no islands that she could see with her naked eye or the binoculars. "No sign of an island or passing ship." She informed, the slight wind playing with her black hair that was in a low pony tail. "Looks like we're stuck out here for a while."

"Aren't we just bordering the Calm Belt though?" Arabella asked as she was on the look-out for any sea kings. "I rather not deal with huge sea monsters again. Especially now since there's something wrong with the sub."

Ran sighed as she fanned herself. "Shit… If we weren't so damn broke, we would've reached the next island by tomorrow."

"I know how you feel." Arabella said. "But we are still new to all this. Not to mention that what we're doing is completely experimental at best. Even the Marines that gave us permission to use some of their short cuts don't think this will go well without a good idea of what the whole world's sea routes are like."

"All I know is that at this point, we need to figure out what we should do if I don't get this fixed by sundown." Mia said, wiping a few beads of sweat off her forehead. "Because everything is shut down until I figure this out."

"You also shut down the refrigerator?" Ran said as she lifted her brow. "Why wasn't I notified this?"

"Because I don't know if the energy running this sub might make it worse since I don't know what or where the problem is." Mia said.

"Some shipwright you are."

"Shut it! I'm new to this!"

"Right, right…" Ran said as she looked at the other two girls. "First Mate Arabella and Sniper Shot Kaytlyn, this is an order from your captain: make me food."

"May as well before it goes bad." Arabella said as she tried to think of what they have in the refrigerator that will spoil in a very short amount of time.

"We can't use the stove either so we would have to come up with something that requires no extra energy except our own man power." Kaytlyn said as Arabella nodded.

"Looks like it's going to be sandwiches then. We can at least use up the meat that we can carve out. We can at least do that."

"Right." The two girls agreed as they headed down to the kitchen of their sub.

While the two were doing that, Mia and Ran stayed on the deck and did their thing. Mia continued to look over the blueprint, trying to make heads or tails of the sub they purchased less than a month ago so they could do this business that's starting to be a bad idea, especially since it seems no one believes they would make it. Ran took up the position of looking out for anything with bored interest when she thought she saw something flying their way.

"Mia… Can ships fly?"

"You smoking crack suddenly?" Mia said as she looked at the other girl as she pointed to where she was looking at, only to see it as well and both girls screamed as they headed back into their sub, which started to jerk around due to the violet disturbance of the water. "What the fuck was that!?"

"How the fuck should I know! I told you it was a fucking flying ship!" Ran said as Kaytlyn ran up.

"Guys! What happened!?"

"A flying ship just crashed next to us! That's what!" Ran said as she noticed that Arabella wasn't around. "Where's Arie?"

"She's hurt! She was holding the knife to cut the meat for the sandwiches-!"

"G-Guys…" Arabella said, as she managed to get up, holding her bleeding arm. "Where's the first aid again?"

"We need a fucking doctor!" Mia shouted as Ran ran out to see that the ship was still there.

"HEY YOU ASSHOLES!" She shouted as she seemed to catch someone's attention. "YOU HAVE A DOCTOR!? MY FIRST MATE IS INJURED AND IT'S YOUR GUYS' FAULT! TAKE FUCKING RESPONSIBILITY!"

There was some activity going on the ship before a hand shot out and grabbed the rail of the sub before a young man came over, nearly ramming into the tall young woman, who just stood there, a bit dumbstruck before she had a look of realization.

"Holy shit…. You're Monkey D. Luffy!" She said as the said young man laughed.

"Yep! So, you said something about your nakama being hurt?"

"Ran!" Mia called out. "Arie needs a doctor, and bad! The cut is just too deep and she's still bleeding!"

Ran looked at Luffy and pointedly looked at him. "Yeah, got a doctor?"

Luffy nodded as he turned and called out to a crewmate called Robin to create a bridge and for Chopper to prep his doctor stuff as a bridge of hands appeared from the ship to the sub, which surprised the two girls as Kaytlyn came out with Arabella, only to be shocked as well before she placed the injured girl onto the bridge and was carried out towards the ship.

But it seems the day just loves to screw with them, for when Arabella, a bit scared by what's going on, was at the middle of the, literally, hand-made bridge between the two ocean vessels, a small sea king came out and had its jaws wide open, ready to take her in whole. She closed her eyes, ready for the painful death that would follow, only to feel nothing and peeked only to see the sea king's head was sliced at the neck, and she got a glimpse of a man with a katana in hand before she passed out.

When she did wake up, her mind was fuzzy and for a moment didn't seem to be responding to anything around her or reacting to anything. Then her ears picked up the sound of heavy boots on wood floors, followed by a grunt as she blinked to get her vision clear while turning her head to the sound to find a form of a man beside her.

"Oi…" She heard him say, but it sounded distant as she saw the form get closer, before stopping and waving a hand over her face. "Oi, you there?" The voice started to sound clearer as she blinked a few times before the voice was clear as a church bell and can see him clearly and immediately recognized who he is.

"You're… Roronoa Zoro." She said as her eyes started to widen.

The said man sighed as he pulled up a chair to sit down. "And you're just one lucky girl. You nearly died twice today."

"Yeah… Thank you for that."

"That was near death one. When Chopper got a look at your wound, it was a lot more serious than a deep cut." He explained as he pointed to the much bandaged left arm. "That will be your second brush of death." He took the cloth off of her forehead and dipped into some water, rung it out and placed it back on her forehead, finding it very cool on her warm skin there.

"It's so hot in here…"

"We're near a summer island, or so that witch says." Zoro said as she looked a bit uncomfortable. "Too warm for you?"

"Is this the lightest sheet you have? It feels like I'm one of those sticks in a headed pastry treat." She said, causing the other to chuckle.

"Sorry to tell you this, but Chopper said that you need to sweat out the medications that he had to use in order to help you. But it's a good thing you were out the whole time."

"Was it really that bad?"

"I don't usually question the doctor of this crew. And when he starts panicking, then everyone has to be on their toes to do whatever they can to help." He said. "Practically made your own crew get close to tears."

"Where are they now?"

"Bunking in the girl's room of this ship." He said as she whimpered. "What's wrong?"

"My arm suddenly started to hurt."

"I'm not surprised. Chopper had to make sure you weren't infected and stitched you up pretty damn good. Probably won't even leave a scar despite how much it was probed at."

She whimpered, but she closed her eyes and tried to think of something to get rid of the pain in her arm. That's when she felt a hand on her shoulder and she looked to see Zoro's dark emerald eyes that looked black unless you were really looking, and she couldn't help but stare at those eyes.

"Oi!" Zoro called out which seemed to shock her back to the present situation. "Must be the drugs kicking in." He said as he leaned back. "Well, I was told to look out for you, and I'm going to do that."

She blushed as she used her good arm to move the sheet a little up under her chin, which the other did that for her.

"It's okay if you want to go to sleep again. You can do that. Might help the drugs pass through faster and you can return to whatever you and your crew were doing by tomorrow."

She nodded as she sighed. "Easier said than done. I'm tired but not enough to be sleepy." She admitted as she felt a bit dizzy, which she groaned and closed her eyes so she wouldn't have to see the room spinning.

"What's wrong now?"

"Dizzy…"

Zoro sighed as he leaned forward. "Want to hear a story?"

She nodded. "I like stories."

Zoro grinned as he told her a story he remembered as a child.

Arabella listened to the story, mostly focusing on his voice as she started to drift off to sleep. 'Such a nice sounding voice.' She thought as she finally fell into a comfortable sleep.

When she woke up again, her head was no longer in a haze and was greeted with sunlight in her eyes. She started to move to get up, but forgotten about her injured arm as she put weight on it, making her yelp in pain, which brought in the girls into the room.

For the first five minutes they were all over her, asking her questions and looking over her and her arms before the doctor of the Strawhat pirates, Tony Tony Chopper, came into the room and asked the three women to head out and he looked over her before telling her some things about how to keep healthy while recovering and was allowed out of bed and headed out of the clinic room.

When she was able to get out of the clinic, she was able to have a small tour of the Sunny before heading out to the deck, which had real grass on it, and saw her crew with some of the Strawhat crew members, simply talking before Ran noticed her and went up to her and lifted her up in a bear hug, which Arabella couldn't feel the ground under her anymore since her captain is much taller than them. Ran placed her back down and the other two girls came up to see if she was still okay and told them what Chopper told her and the girls nodded in understanding.

"We got an idea of where we should go from here, and the sub is fixed and improved thanks to Franky." Mia said as the Strawhat's shipwright did a pose, calling out 'super', making her shake her head out of amusement.

"That's good." Arabella said as she saw Kaytlyn run up to the cook of the ship, Sanji, as she offered to carry a sack of flour as they headed to the side of the ship where she saw the deck of their sub is.

"We also go supplies that will last us a good month or two, and we should be able to get around these waters better." Mia added. "So, whenever Ran's ready to go, we're leaving." She simply stated as she headed back to the sub, leaving the first mate to simply walk around, finding Ran talking to Luffy.

"Oi! Marimo! Hurry up with those barrels!" Sanji called out, followed by a grunt of 'don't tell me what to do.'

She looked to see Zoro, carrying two barrels.

"Oh, you're up and well I see." He said as she nodded. "That's good, just take a seat somewhere and just relax, it looks like your captain won't go anywhere anytime soon." He said as he headed towards the sub.

She sat down on the swing and enjoyed the music being played by Brook not too far off. It was still fairly warm out, but now it seems to be a very tolerable kind of warmth in the air as she swung a little on the swing.

"Oh there you are!" Ran said as she looked to see her first mate. "We'll be leaving in a bit, so you know."

"Aye captain." Arabella said with a smile.

"Still a little out of it?"

"I guess. Must be the medications."

"I wouldn't blame ya." Ran said as she headed to the sub. "I'll call ya when we're ready to go!"

"Okay." She said as she didn't mind staying on deck for a little while longer.

She watched as the crew's sniper and doctor were playing a game and had to giggle at the thought that, not too long ago she was being treated by the same doctor that is now playing like a child. It was endearing to her. She started to feel a little light headed, which she was sure it was because she hadn't had anything to eat since she woke up and she was getting up when she felt her legs give out under her and she sat back down on the swing.

"Trouble standing?"

She looked up to see Zoro with a raised brow. "I just haven't eaten anything, so my body is pretty much on a strike on me." She said with a bit of a nervous laugh, since she's in the presence of a strong swordsman next to Mihawk that she'd heard about.

"That would do it." Zoro said as he went up to her and quickly lifted her up bridal style.

"I-I can walk!"

"No you can't." He said as he brought them to the kitchen, where there were the other two women of the Strawhat crew, enjoying a small snack before looking up to see him with the dark red head before he set her down next to Robin. "I'll come get you when your captain says that your crew is ready to depart." He then headed out of the kitchen where he was just in time to hear his name being called to do something.

"That was different." Nami, the navigator, said as she looked at the new girl in the room. "What did you do to him?"

Arabella looked lost as Robin giggled as she offered tea and a biscuit to her, which she thanked her for. "I didn't do anything." She simply said as she took a bite of the biscuit before drinking a bit of tea, starting to feel a lot better.

Robin giggled as she placed her cup down. "I'm sure he's just being kind to you, Miss Willins."

"Please call me Arabella, or Arie if you wish." She said as she took another bite of her biscuit.

"But it's strange that he's nice to her than with everyone else." Nami pointed out.

"He's been respectful to all the girls, Nami. That includes us." Robin said calmly.

"I know, but this is different." Nami pointedly said as Zoro came in again, saying that it was time for Arabella to head back with her crew.

"Okay." Arabella said as she got up, finding that she was much better after having something in her stomach now. "Thank you for allowing me to join in your discussion." She bowed to the two women as she carefully walked over to Zoro, gaining confidence in her footing the closer she got to him, who had the door open for her to go through. "Thank you."

"Don't mention it." He said as he followed her out and accompanied her to the sub on the side of the ship.

"About time girl! Get your cute ass up here already!" Ran said with a teasing smile. "And that's an order from your captain!"

"Aye, aye." She said as Zoro helped her onto the rail and she jumped onto the small deck of the sub ship. "Thank you very much for helping me." She bowed. "You're very kind."

"Just don't get yourself hurt too often like that." Zoro said. "Next time you won't be so lucky."

She laughed nervously. "I know. I'll take that to heart." She said as Luffy and the rest of the crew went to the side to see her and the others off.

"Someone has a crush…" Ran said in a sing song voice as they were some distance away from the Sunny.

"Huh?" Arabella said as she looked at her captain with some confusion. "Who does?"

"You, smart one!"

"Eh?"

"You're so adorable when you look clueless." Ran said with a chuckle. "You and Luffy's First Mate?" She waggled her eyebrows as Arabella started to have rosy dust on her cheeks.

"I-It's nothing like that!"

"Uh-huh. And I'm the Easter Bunny." Ran said sarcastically. "You could've at least tapped that ass."

"RAN!" Arabella whined as her face was completely red as they were going back into the sub.

"Don't blame me. Blame this summer heat!"

"That has nothing to do with anything!" She whined as Mia mentioned them to shut it already and getting back on course. But she did wonder if she was going to see the swordsman again someday.


	24. Unsettling Revelations

**Title: Unsettling Revelations**

You know when you have found out something that you wish you didn't know, but the saying 'what has been seen can never be unseen' rings true to many.

Zoro headed over to the apartment where the girls' reside at, give or take two hours after denying getting lost of what was supposed to be a ten minute walk from his apartment. He headed up to the apartment, seeing a note from Arabella when he entered to see that the girls were out for a bit and will return, but to make himself at home.

He went around the living room of the apartment, which wasn't very big, but he plopped onto the couch and surfed through the channels before he got up to look for the bathroom, only to find one of the girl's rooms instead. He was going to walk out when he noticed something in the room, a computer that was still on. Normally he wouldn't pay too much attention on the fact of the computer being on in the room, but he recognized the room to be Arabella's and Ran's room, and that was Ran's computer, which means she was showing something to either Arabella or the whole crew on something. He went over to wake up the computer from its auto-sleep mode and saw that Ran was downloading something onto her computer.

"Great, must be another game of some sort." He said as he saw that it was done downloading. He clicked the minimize button to go down and saw the game window saying 'SLENDER' with a play button at the bottom of the title. He shrugged his shoulders as he sat down on the chair and clicked play. "Wasn't this the game that you have to pick up eight pages and not look back?" He chuckled. "That should be easy enough." He then saw that he had a hard time seeing the screen, got up to draw the curtains closed and went back to control the camera to find the first page when the music changed. It didn't bother him as he continued along to find the second page, then he got lost.

"Okay, where's that fucking next page." He said as the music was starting to grain on his nerves. "What the hell happens when I turn around anyway?" He controlled the camera to turn, only to see something that he couldn't understand. "Is that a guy behind that tree?" He turned the camera back to face the front. "I guess that's the Slender man that that Ran keeps talking about. What's so scary about th-" He wasn't able to finish his sentence when that man appeared within a blink of an eye as the screen started to fuss out and a screeching and static sound came up that made him back away from the computer when the screen became black again with the words 'Game Over' appeared and he just sat there, stupefied of what just happened and closed the window. "Fucking asshole. If he'd done that and I had a weapon, he'd be fucking dead."

He then noticed a tab at the bottom of the computer screen and clicked on it, blowing it up to see something he didn't want to see and closed it back down.

"Hello!" Arabella called out as she and the other girls went into the apartment.

Zoro got up and headed out of the room to see them.

"Hey there Zoro." Arabella said as she went up to hug her boyfriend. "What've you done while we're away?"

"For starters, I played at least one game that was downloaded on Ran's computer."

" 'Slender'? How was it?"

"I hate it and never want to play it again. That can kiss my ass for all I care."

"Scared the crap out of you huh?" Ran teased as he flipped the bird which she waved off. "Well, Mamma-san is free to go with you, Papa-san."

"I'm no one's dad, so quit that." He said as he led her out of the apartment. "Let's go."

"O-okay…" She said as she waved the girls bye and she and Zoro headed out of the apartment.

"What was his hurry?" Mia said as she lifted her brow. "Because of the game?"

Ran went into the room to see the window for the game as well as the minimized tab as she shook her head. "Damn… he found my porn videos of me and Luffy."

Meanwhile Zoro and Arabella were at the bar when he chugged down his third beer.

"Take it easy Zoro. You're acting like you're trying to forget something."

"I am." He said.

"About the game? I know it's a bit scary and all, but-"

"It's not about the stupid game."

"Then what?"

"Something I shouldn't have seen that was on the computer." He said as he rubbed his eyes. 'I can't get that image out of my head.'

Arabella didn't really like seeing Zoro like this as she came up with something that was a bit out of her comfort zone, but sure to blow away whatever was bothering her boyfriend. "Zoro…"

"What?" He said a bit harshly as he turned to look at her, only to have his lips claimed and a hand go through his hair. He returned the kiss a moment of shock later and ran his tongue along the bottom lip. The thought of that porn image blown right out of his mind.


	25. Endings

**Title: Endings**

It's been quite a number of years since the Strawhats reunited and Zoro practically saying that we're engaged to both mine and his crew. We've kept in touch since then from time to time, while me and the girls still do deliveries until our debt and contract with the Marines expired and we were free to do what we wanted. Granted we lost a lot of our Marine customers, but we have a lot of civilian customers and Mihawk still keeps his name on the list, but now the orders are ale and information on what I know about how Zoro is doing.

We would run into them from time to time and everyone would be watching the tow of us when we get together to talk like when he was training under Mihawk. I saw Zoro in his true element with his crew and I think I've fallen in more in love with him than I had before.

When we were still in contract with the Marines, I was only able to contact him on the days were we had no work and we were sure that the Marines didn't have their ears trained on our dendens; needless to say we went over to Shakky's bar a lot to do this, which fills Shakky in on her favorite pirate crew.

When we were off the contract, the first thing we did was contact the crew and asked for their possible coordinates and met up with them, having their name on the list as being the first pirate crew to have their names on for our deliveries and had a party to celebrate our retirement of being Marine sea dogs. Though throughout the party, Nami has been asking if there was still going to be a wedding and if so then she wants to be the one to organize it all, in which Zoro told her to shove off and dragged me to talk to Robin, who is the more tolerable of the two female crew. Sanji of course was giving Zoro a hard time about being a good husband, but thankfully Kaytlyn managed to drag him away from that and pay more of his attention to her, and she's been writing some lyrics while we were going from place to place. Sanji even told her of his dream and that he would love it if she would perform in his dream restaurant; needless to say that there's a good chance of a two possible married couples in the near future. Ran and Luffy made a quick friendship of food and played a bit before Ran got tired, in which they reminded me of two dogs; a large, tired dog being pounce and prodded by a puppy. And Mia and Law, who still in alliance with the Strawhats amazingly, have butted heads for a bit there, but quickly gained respect for one another and I think they might be doing something behind doors as well.

But we couldn't join them, even though that was tempting to Ran, we have made a lot of close contacts with our customers, me with Mihawk for one thing. So we continued with this pattern until the news of the new Pirate King Luffy was known to the world. From there, it didn't take long for the sneaky paparazzi to figure out that we were a loose part of the crew, but that didn't bother anyone of us.

It was one of those times that we came together, after losing over half our customers after the news of our "involvement" with the Strawhats, we were enjoying a day at some isolated island that Nami had drew on her mostly completed world map, just near the edge of All Blue.

Speaking of which, Sanji and Kaytlyn have been talking about the layout of the restaurant that will be placed in the center of the vast ocean of all oceans, while also talking about a future together. It won't be long until Sanji is thinking what kind of cut would look best on Lyn's finger.

Ran even mangaged to get good old fashioned tongue dance from Luffy, who apparently likes it… a lot.

"Oi, Ara…" Zoro said as we were sitting under the shade of a palm tree. "Your favorite season is fall, right?"

"Yeah."

"Let's have the wedding in that season then."

"Isn't that my job to be thinking about the wedding while you sweat over that you're no longer going to be a single guy?"

"Single? I've been engaged to you for years now. I can hardly call myself single."

"Most of those times I'm not there."

"You were here. All the time."

"Zoro? Are you trying to make me blush?"

"You're too easy to blush. And I feel like a damn idiot just saying these things." He said as yawned. "But it's not all that bad."

"Just cheesy?"

"Define 'just'." He said, making me laugh a bit. "But seriously… every time you had to leave, I think about you. At first it pissed me off, but I couldn't really do anything about it. You're a nice girl and had no reason to be ignored because I didn't understand what it was about you that made me want to smash my head against the wall. But I grew to tolerate it, since you were my source of information, besides Mihawk, and you don't seem to mind a lot. And the more I tolerated it, the more I like it. I like to see you smile the most."

"People say that a smile is a person's best feature." I said.

"Is that so? Well I don't think that's mine."

"You have an attractive smile! You just don't use it too often. A rare treat to me."

"Oh? You like it when I scowl then? I know guys who piss me off love it." This made us both laugh before falling into a peaceful pause of silence.

"Do you think the crew would mind if we have the wedding on Sunny?"

"A wedding on Sunny?" Zoro said. "Never thought of that. Franky would definitely fill her with his tears." He smiled. "Why not? It's a nice idea. It would give her something else to be happy about."

"Really?"

"Yeah." He said. "And call me poetic, but it brings an ending to one chapter."

"An end? What's to be ending?"

Zoro smiled. "An ending to a mixed crew following a man who has the most impossible dream of all. And a beginning of an era that follows the rule of that man, now king of all the seas."

I smiled as we looked at Luffy and the rest of the group. "It is kinda poetic. I won't mention it to anyone."

"I know you wouldn't." He said as he sat upright. "So, a fall wedding on Sunny… Should we having it in the middle of the ocean or near an island?"

"Unless that island is where the honeymoon is, I say at the middle of the ocean. Just before dawn…"

"Before dawn?"

"If you think about it, if sunsets would represent the end of things… dawn would mean the beginning."

"And we got two women that can time it just right to the moment for the sun to rise for when we make the vows."

I giggled. "Talk about a fairy tale wedding with the best wedding kiss moment. Aren't you feeling a bit irked about it?"

He simply shrugged his shoulders. "It could be worse. I could've ended up like Crap Cook."

I had to laugh at that. "Oh high powers! The world will end as we know it!"

"Yeah, yeah. Laugh it up." He said with a grin of his own. "So, when do you want to tell them?"

"Well, regardless of when we say it, both of us will know that both Nami and Sanji will expect to do the planning from start to end."

"And I'm not looking forward on that." He said with a stretch. "Well, we could tell them now so at least they have something to focus on while we come up what to do with the arrangements now, since your delivery business is mostly floating on the surface now."

"Not entirely, we still got Mihawk, and no one wants to deal with him, even if he was defeated by you, and Shanks asked for some things. And believe it or not, the towns you guys unofficially claimed are also asking us for a little helping hand."

Zoro laughed at this as Luffy called out to them to play a game with him and a few others. "It almost seems unreal at times."

"I know what you mean." I said as Luffy came over and practically dragged us up to our feet and dragged us to the others."

"What were you guys doing anyway?" Luffy asked.

"The wedding date." Zoro said without hesitation or missing a beat.

"Oh, cool." Luffy said with a smile. "Is it set or is it to be discussed a bit more?"

"We have an idea." I said as Zoro and I had a look of knowing.

The wedding will happen sometime after that, but Zoro was right, it was an ending to one part of our lives and a beginning of a new.


End file.
